Can you say that again in English?
Yesterday, MSNBC revealed results of the Most Annoying Word poll. Not surprising, 47 percent of those surveyed chose whatever as number one on the annoyance meter, and I have to agree it's a doozy. But it's really only one of many words and phrases that set my teeth on edge. Here are my top offenders: sea change , outside the box , low-hanging fruit , leverage , bandwith. How did these ever make it into common parlance? Why do people think they are acceptable? How can we make them go away?
I am far from a linguist, but I do value language and I hate to see it mistreated. I sense that people use buzzwords to appear "in the know" but I beg to differ. At Capstrat, we've created a list of forbidden buzzwords. Lazy words and those that muddy thinking have no place in our agency and are banished from conversation and documents. Build your own list of offenders and prepare to take your bows as plain and clear English re-enters your workplace.
Comments
at the end of the day has to be on the list
I think what bothers me more are when words are used so excessively that they loose their meaning altogether. For example, I think the world "engagement" is in jeopardy. Nothing against the spirit of the word - but we often use it in situations when more specific language is needed.
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