Usage - a lot

This blog has discussed many things about how to make your writing the best it can be, including vocabulary and usage. Today, we'll focus on a term that almost everyone uses in their writing at some point or another.

I'd bet that a lot of you use the term "a lot!" By now, you've probably noticed that a lot is written as two separate words. Believe it or not, writing it incorrectly (as one word) can cause a lot of people to focus on that error a lot more than they should.

One key to good writing is to vary your words. So the example given above with the multiple times that the phrase "a lot" was used is something you should try to stay away from doing! It's fine to use it once or twice in an essay, but ask yourself is there a different word or phrase that you can substitute in place of "a lot" and still keep the meaning the same? Let's look at an example.

"I go to Publix a lot."

Instead, I could say any of these statements.
"I go to Publix frequently."
"I go to Publix many times."
"I go to Publix all the time."

Now it's your turn to try this. I'll give you a few statements below that all use the phrase a lot. Pick one sentence and figure out how you can replace that term and use something else to get the same idea across to the reader. You could even redesign the entire sentence if needed! As you saw above, there are many ways that the same idea can be expressed.

1.) Billy eats a lot of ham sandwiches.
2.) My cat, Spanky, sleeps a lot.
3.) I enjoy watching television a lot.
4.) Mrs. Jones has a lot of students in her class.
5.) Dave spends a lot of his time on the computer.
6.) A lot of people will watch the Olympics.