And yet. I'm reading a book aloud to my class of 2nd graders. It is a good book; it's even a popular book. Actually there's a whole series and a movie.
My problem with it is that the characters keep saying things. As I'm reading the story, over and over again ---"said soandso" --- "said soandso" --- "soandso said" --- said, said, said, said.
I get bored reading that so repeatedly. According to everything I read when I was teaching writing last year the word "said" is evil. I've seen big 'ol gravestone posters that have "Said is DEAD" written on them. Then they list a whole bunch of alternatives. And I can see why. Said is freaking boring.
I just had to get that out of my system. We're a departmentalized second grade so I'm essentially reading the same section of the book three times a day. Which means I get to read that word way too many times.
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Said can be very irritating. I try to make it clear who is speaking and then the need for "said" is gone.
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