When I was younger I would read writing style books because I didn't have opinions about style. But I was reading a friend's book and I remembered one style element from when I was editing writers work as a supervisor in a child welfare program. My friend wrote that a church was "very modest". I feel that "very" is distracting, maybe even histrionic. Modest will do all the work you need. What is the difference between a modest church and a very modest church? So I would just cross out every "very" in my workers writing because it seemed hysterical. Mind you I don't mind hysteria, I was called emotionally reactive myself, though I had decided to let my emotions out, model emotional awareness, not panic that they need a lid put on them. The other thing about hysteria is the horrible history of men using the medical setting to try to put a lid on women. T. S. Eliot putting his wife in an institution because she was difficult. Actually I don...