Day 4: Avoid over-generalizing.

One of my favorite expressions as a kid was, “Oh, yeah? Prove it.” (I was a precocious child.) Over-generalizing means making a general statement or reaching a conclusion from a very limited number of examples. When you over-generalize, you invite your reader to ask, “Oh, yeah? Prove it.”

If you base an argument, concept, fact, idea, etc. on your overgeneralized statement, the reader can discredit everything you have written. The reader only needs one example to prove you wrong.

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Here’s the tip that accompanies “avoid over-generalization”: When you make a general statement, make sure it’s true in EVERY case.

Some examples of over-generalizing are:

“As everyone knows . . .”

“She was always smiling.”

“People loved her cooking.”

“This is the most exciting movie.”

“The stores in this town are no good.”

“Text books are boring.”

“People do this when they’re tired.”

“Men are pigs, but women are angels.”

“It figures.”