I have recently been working on a style guide for Econsultancy, to help internal and external writers achieve a measure of consistency.
As part of the style guide I’ve compiled a ‘Common Words’ section (because 'email' has no hyphen, but 'e-commerce' does), and an ‘Acronyms’ section (because if you don’t know your SEO from your WTF then people tend to LOL).
I am also assembling a ‘Banned Words and Phrases’ section, to try to rid our pages of the meaningless guff typically found in press releases and Powerpoint slideshows. There is no room for ‘bleeding-edge solutions’ at this inn.
When writing about marketing and technology it is normally possible to resort to plain English, rather than jargon and rage-inducing PRspeak, though from time to time I guess we’re all guilty of slipping up. It comes with the territory, to some degree.
Nevertheless, smiting words like ‘leverage’ and ‘synergies’ is a noble pursuit and one that we should all take on. I hope we can all banish these swinish words and phrases for good. PR people take note!
So here are some of the words and phrases I have included on my personal banned list. I can barely bring myself to write some of these down, and I apologise in advance if you regurgitate your breakfast in the next 30 seconds:
- Leverage / Leveraging (I know, it's disgusting isn't it? Used commonly by experts like Susan Harrow, author of 'Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul'. In a headline too. Oh the irony.)
- Synergy / Synergies (in press releases this normally means redundancies; amazingly some people can say this twice in the same sentence)
- Paradigm shift (only parents that name their children Ralph pronounced 'Raif' are more pretentious)
- Leading (as in ‘a leading global supplier of xyz’ / ‘leading edge’)
- Solutions (often unavoidable in certain contexts, but still abhorrent)
- Touch base
- Incentivise (is this really a valid word?)
- Holistic
- Come to the party (and barf on my guests)
- Over-arching (note: strategies are NOT eyebrows)
- 24/7
- Mission critical (do you work at NASA? Here's an example in a press release of how this phrase can hurt your head: "Itanium-based systems saw increased migration from legacy mainframes and earned continued success in the mission-critical and computationally intensive arenas.")
- Actionable
- Best in class / breed (/show?)
- Blue sky thinking
- Value-added
- Robust (normally means cumbersome and expensive)
- Deliverables
- End-to-end
- Going forward
Somebody pass me a bucket...
What did I miss? Please add your own suggestions underneath...
Chris Lake is Director of Product Development at Econsultancy, an entrepreneur and a long-term internet fiend. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin.
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Research Director at Econsultancy
1:21PM on 2nd February 2009
Great list Chris.
However, as someone who also straddles the world of marketing and journalism I'm actually quite tolerant of certain business phrases and can't quite understand why journalists take such offence, especially when some words can be quite helpful.
Of course, if there is a simpler or way of saying something then let's use the simpler word or phrase.
Shoot me if you like but I think 'robust' and 'actionable' are quite useful words in the right context.
The latter, for example, makes a load of sense if you are talking about Web Analytics although you wouldn't expect to read it in the Guardian necessarily.
The former is good way of describing a valid research methodology.
It amuses me that journalists get uppity about some phrases and words when newspapers are peppered with phrases and words which aren't really spoken by people in the pub or anywhere else for that matter.
For example ... 'REVELLERS' gathered at Trafalgar Square'. Or 'REVELATIONS about ....'.
But in the mean time, let's keep pushing the edge of the envelope and ensure that we have a best-of-breed blog ...
Online PR/Social Media Consultant at Econsultancy
1:24PM on 2nd February 2009
'Granular' and 'drill-down' - especially when applied to research..."if you want to get really granular results then we can drill-down into these areas" - eeurgh!
Research Director at Econsultancy
1:40PM on 2nd February 2009
'On the fly' is pretty ubiquitous these days and always makes me chuckle. Shame on me, but I quite like 'granular'. But of course, there's a time and a place. But no, you wouldn't want to see it in a press release or an article. Apologies to all for the non-plain-English sins I have committed.
Lead Technical Architect at PRWD
1:45PM on 2nd February 2009
I've used a few of the words and phrases on your list, although only ever in a 'business' context. I do know some people who speak like that all the time, which is a bit worrying.
The problem is that many of these phrases refer to concepts that don't have an obvious 'better' word. A more useful list would be a list of the replacements for the words above, although I think it would be a lot harder to compile. There has, over the last few years, been a definite reaction against the use of 'business-speak' amongst software developers.
The rise of major open source software projects has led to a situation where big pieces of software are being marketed, but not by marketing departments; often, other software developers (or 'evangelists') are put in charge of promoting the software they wrote. This has resulted in a slew of websites which advertise software in what appears to be the persona of a 14-year-old. What might have been described as an "enterprise-class best-of-breed search solution" would now be a "super-awesome search library", or something along those lines (if I'm exaggerating, it's not by much).
The desire to put across 'warmth' and 'humanity' (think Innocent Smoothies here) is just as off-putting as the faux-intelligence of management-speak.
I've yet to see anyone come up with a clear set of instructions for how to communicate with clarity to a wide audience, whilst also communicating some extra "between the lines" statements about the values and principles of the speaker/author. Of course, it remains possible that this is just really difficult, and that's why most people do so badly at it.
Lead Technical Architect at PRWD
1:46PM on 2nd February 2009
Also, the comment system just stole my CR/LFs. I do know how to write in paragraphs, honest!
Director at immediate future- social media consultancy
1:55PM on 2nd February 2009
oh yes you missed a few! some of my pet hates include...
world-class
interface (not as a technical word, but in having a conversation)
Bandwidth (again not in tech speak, but instead to refer to capacity or time)
Out of the box (on every TV programme about business)
close the loop
Unique - when clearly not
Learnings
and then there are the really useless hyperbole found in every press release i see about social media.In particular, 'fun' and 'exciting' for a new product or launch.
I am a PR and I have to defend our profession and say that some of us try not to use wasteful words!
Kate
www.immediatefuture.co.uk
Pan-European Media Consultant at Toshiba Europe GmbH
2:05PM on 2nd February 2009
I find 'cutting-edge', 'solution', and 'results-oriented' the worst waffle offenders.
There's one or two more that rattled my cage at http://www.muddyclay.com/2008/12/12/public-relations-nonsense-and-gobbldygook/
2:07PM on 2nd February 2009
Good list; it includes most of the words that spring to mind for me. One additional phrase that keeps appearing in some engineering materials I'm working from at the moment is 'cradle to grave', as in 'cradle-to-grave solutions'.
As well as having a slightly sinister ring to it, when used on a website it will probably confuse those members of the audience who don't have English as a first language!
Director of Product Development at Econsultancy
2:17PM on 2nd February 2009
Argh, what have I started?
Linus - snowballs at dawn. There's definitely a grey area here, I agree. But where we can dodge, let's dodge.
Michelle - I'm pretty sure I'm guilty of using drill-down. Penance is due.
Katy - 'Learnings' is definitely a pet hate for me too. I must be in denial.
Rob - agree that a better list would be to replace bad with good; maybe we need a wiki or something? Not sure what happened to the line breaks - what browser are you using?
Helen - CRADLE TO GRAVE... that's truly awful. You have to wonder...! Ugh!
Editor at Econsultancy
2:57PM on 2nd February 2009
'Blue-sky thinking' gets my goat...
3:03PM on 2nd February 2009
These are all definitely ban worthy. There are some other words which I think are a grey area. As words they're OK, but when they're overused or misused they become as bad as the offenders above, eg 'proprietary', 'innovative'.
I've got my own list, here.
Social Media / SCRM Consultant at Capgemini
6:57PM on 2nd February 2009
Thanks for reaching out to us and putting your arms around the use/misuse/appropriation/misappropriation of language. I shall definitely take the learnings provided so robustly by you when I next put together a blue sky presentation that outlines the paradigm shift we are all currently experiencing in our business through the use of innovative social media apps such as Twitter. I know at my place of work this is receiving little bandwidth...oh my god, not only is there an elephant in the room, it's being followed by a black swan...aaaargh! :)
7:14PM on 2nd February 2009
I despise 'learnings', which is legion in the marketing world. I curse myself silently everytime I accidentally use it. Lessons, not learnings, are learned.
11:30PM on 2nd February 2009
I have a couple of my pet hates to add to the list, although most of my bug bears have been covered. I do so hate 'event' as in weather event. We've been having lots of snow events on the Beeb today. Why? What's so wrong with plain old snow all of a sudden?
Heads up - yuk.
Across the piece. I really don't understand that one. It seems to be used by a lot of HR people and seems to be a catch all or plug when they can't think of the correct word.
And I came across a beauty today - worklessness. Is unemployement really such a shameful word it has to be replaced by one that's actually rather difficult to say?
4:58PM on 3rd February 2009
Not a word/phrase, but a question: Why Do Many PR Companies Write Headlines Where Each Word Has An Initial Capital Lettere? Are they made to by their US clients?
Paul
Digital Project Manager at Christian Aid
4:59PM on 3rd February 2009
PLEASE will you share the style guide with us when it's finished?
4:15PM on 4th February 2009
I was recently accused for 'scope creep' (as in 'not what we agreed') by an external supplier which made me retch. Also, quite recently a consultant (the worst offenders if you ask me) working with us used the term 'searchandising' and I almost asked him to leave the room....
Director of Product Development at Econsultancy
4:38PM on 4th February 2009
I've heard of 'feature creep' but 'scope creep' is a particularly nasty one. Sounds like a slasher movie for geeks.
@Stephanie - I'll make the Style Guide available for anybody who wants it. We may publish it as a freebie though it's really just for internal and external contributors...
2:08PM on 11th February 2009
The all-time worst offender, in my opinion, is "verbage", as in "We just need to get the verbage right" or "Talk to Amy to get the verbage we're using in the press release". I suppose in these contexts "verbage" is intended to mean "language" or "words", but the word is "verbiage" and it doesn't mean what you think it means. It makes me want to punch people.
Director of Product Development at Econsultancy
2:10PM on 11th February 2009
SP, if you did start windmilling into people then they'd totally deserve it, the bastards.
2:53PM on 25th March 2009
Goddamn, you aint seen nothing till you read some of the stuff i see here in Moscow.
6:34PM on 21st June 2010
'PR speak' to me is a reflection of an dynamic, evolving culture. It makes writing more concise, up-to-date, and interesting. The strongest 'PR Speaks' will endure and the weakest will fade away, often after just a few years. Bring 'em on. I'm all for it.
6:58PM on 30th June 2010
'Impactful.' I heard some guy use this on NPR the other day. Ugh. The PRspeak use of 'Impacted' in place of 'affected' was already bad enough. Makes me think of an impacted wisdom tooth. Or an impacted bowel. What's next, impactariffic? Impactious?
4:18PM on 11th April 2011
Chris, Is the style guide that you produced available publicly? I've been looking for a good one to highlight to colleague why writing (even for internal documentation) is: a skill; something to do well or not at all; and something we (myself included) need to get better at!
(BTW, so many great comments on this post - And The Headlines That Start With Capital Letters one really annoys me when retweeting!)
Director of Product Development at Econsultancy
4:21PM on 11th April 2011
@Mark - it used to be but Drop.io was acquired and discontinued, so it's no longer online. We will email you a copy.
Cheers,
c.
8:20PM on 6th May 2011
Thanks for the wake-up call (another horror phrase).
I'm saddened to think that the development sector happily uses such language, myself included.
Reading your list felt like an extract from the many donor reports I've seen over the past year.
3:16AM on 14th May 2011
"behaviors"
"implement"
"utilize" (for "use")
orientate
All common in US
Webmaster/Senior Web Developer at Find Me A Gift Ltd
9:27AM on 10th June 2011
I see lots of words here that people don't like (and some are really quite horrific) but much fewer suggestions as to what to use in their place.
Some are obvious - lessons learnt for learnings, for example - but I think others gain popularity because they say something in a succinct and widely understood way, that's difficult to say any other way.
I came to this conversation from this blog: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7616-what-are-the-lowest-hanging-fruit-opportunities-for-seo where comments were made about 'low hanging fruit'.
What should be used instead? 'Easy pickings'? 'Stuff that's really easy to do and won't take much effort'?
The first is almost the same, the second doesn't exactly trip off the tongue.
If you look back over the history of the English language, there are many words that have been tried but fallen by the wayside. Likewise, there are many that were disliked when first introduced, but feel quite normal now. This is how our language grows, and why it has been, and continues to be, such an international success.
Chris - we are all waiting for the publication of your report!
Online Marketing Engagement Manager at Adecco management & consulting
3:53PM on 14th June 2011
Fun post - how about 'ideate' / 'ideation'.
@Jonathan - seconded on the 'learnings'
Marketing Consultant at http://paulgailey.com
4:59PM on 10th August 2011
It's the sort of thread that you just cannot retort with a "let's park this for a while".