CHANNELING INCLUDED

I Have a Pet Peeve

Uh — Word Rot

How to Ruin What You Say — Created by the Author in Canva

I have a pet peeve. It is the word uh. I’ve used it myself in speaking and I have tried to eliminate it. It smacks of a disordered mind to my way of thinking.

I first became aware of people saying the word uh when I was a teenager. If you are interested enough and watch some newscasts, you will, I guarantee, get an earful of uh’s from the folks serving up whatever they are talking about. Granted, not all of them, because you can talk without saying uh, but it is common enough.

How to cure yourself of saying uh is you vow to be conscious of yourself saying uh. It’s like listening to yourself. It gets easier as you begin listening to what you are saying. It’s been explained to me that we like to fill silence with something. It’s this constant need to be in motion, I suppose. The fear is that if you pause for a second, you will lose the attention of your audience, which is not the case.

I suppose a good way to go about it is to listen to some news reporters with their own need to fill every inch of silence with noise. You will hear those uh’s right away. Then, you can begin noticing if you are saying them. What do we do but emulate other people’s behaviors on our way through life?