Find weasel words - usage: cat file.txt | ./grep-weasel-words.sh

grep-weasel-words.sh

#!/bin/sh
# http://matt.might.net/articles/shell-scripts-for-passive-voice-weasel-words-duplicates/

weasels="many|various|very|fairly|several|extremely\
|exceedingly|quite|remarkably|few|surprisingly\
|mostly|largely|huge|tiny|((are|is) a number)\
|excellent|interestingly|significantly\
|substantially|clearly|vast|relatively\
|completely|helps|supports|useful|improved\
|improves|effective|almost|lots\
|should|might|generally\
|usually|probably|significant|some\
|better|worse|soon|faster\
|slower|higher|lower|more|teams|stakeholders|less\
|anger|angry|relieved|relief|think|feel|despair|anxious\
|doubt|fear|nervous|panic|scared|shock|upset|worry\
|worried|uncertain|excited|excitement|confident|sure\
|certain|happy|glad|mirth|joy|elated|elation|pleased\
|satisfied|concern|depressed|dread|sorrow|distress|hope\
|could|felt|heard|saw|knew|realized|wanted|thought|noticed\
|seemed|decided|looked|understood|considered|believed|appeared\
|watched|smelled|touched|wondered|recognized|wished|supposed\
|as|while|since|when|before|after\
|about|just|really|started|began|all|again|that\
|any|so|then|rather|some|only|like|close|even\
|somehow|sort|pretty|well|back|up|down|anyway\
|real|already|own|over|ever|be able to|still|bit|far\
|often|also|enough|maybe|one of|thing|most|in order to"

exec egrep -i -n --color "\\b($weasels)\\b" "$@"