Both

COVID-19 is a pandemic most people know, some more than others, and some more painfully than many. But there’s another pandemic that’s affecting writing, and it’s a four-letter word: both.

More and more, writers, reporters, speakers, social media “masters” insert “both” before linking two nouns, two adjectives, … two anything.

And it’s unnecessary. I will delete the word when editing … anything – if it doesn’t add clarity.

There’s no need to say “both the blue cat and the purple cat ran down the street” because there is no uncertainty in just writing “the blue cat and the purple cat ran down the street.” I know in the second sentence both cats ran down the street.

“But I need to add ‘both’ for emphasis,” people like to say when told it’s not needed.

Imagine if Shakespeare wrote in “Sonnet 18,” “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art both more lovely and more temperate.”

Or if Alfred Lord Tennyson said instead, “Tis better to have both loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”

Before the conjunction “both” is unnecessary. (And, yes, I know using “both blah blah and blah blah” is also considered a conjunction … by some.)

The best use of “both” is actually after the conjunction. “The blue cat and the purple cat ran down the street. Both of them chased a mouse into an alley and ate it for breakfast.”

Feel free to disagree and push back. You may do both.