Recycling is good... unless it's that damn word that you use over and over

I'm coauthoring an article on squirrel behavior and reading over a draft before it goes out to review. At this point I'm looking at style and I'm also reading Pinker's book The Sense of Style and I still have (and probably always will), Strunk and White's guide in my head.

So much of what I'm suggesting (I'm third or fourth author) is about deletion. One word in particular keep popping up, specifically it's "specifically."  This word has popped up at least eight times so far and I'm just getting to the discussion.

Funny how words get stuck in your head and they just beg to be used over and over. For me, it's "moreover" and "for example" - and I use these way too much - as reviewers have pointed out. Moreover, I... just kidding.  

I supposed we're dealing with a limited number of words in technical writing and that fictional writers have a totally different set of words they cling to. 

I just ended a word with a preposition - Pinker said it was cool so it's staying. 

Today's post brought to you by today's bird: a Bald Eagle that chilled out over some open water near campus.