Business Writing Info Blog

This was a mistake. When delivering bad news, there are a number of techniques one can use, but they all contain two key elements to succeed: truth and sincerity.

Here are funny jargon examples. I hope you enjoy this illustrative chuckle for some Friday fun.

The authors will be holding a discussion about registration, to better give instruction to the participants who have to make a choice between which sessions to attend. (27 words)

Worrisome new research out of New York University and the University of Basel indicates that imprecise business writing and jargon isn't merely annoying and meaningless. They can also be perceived as lying to certain readers.

Don't make the business writing error of taking a useful noun, such as mainstream, or action, and morphing it into a business-speak verb like mainstreamification, or actionize.

I hear these concerns about business writing skills often:

(Issue 38: March, 2011)
Last month, I presented this year's crop of jargon and gobbledygook phrases business writers want to avoid. This issue presents clearer alternatives to these overused phrases.

I noticed two responses from the many client and reader comments and contributions to this list:

   1. These phrases really annoy readers.
   2. At one point, most of these phrases were useful and even evocative. Now, they are so overused they indicate parroted, or even careless, thinking. 

(Issue 37: February, 2011)
I wrote one of the most popular articles in our business writing blog, "Top Ten Irritating Phrases," in 2009. Sadly, we business writers sometimes still mistakenly lapse into drone-like, meaningless phrases. There is a new crop of business-speak phrases we want to avoid.

I recently surveyed a wide range of clients from various industries, and asked them which over-used phrases they would like to see banished. The response was so overwhelming.

Here are the most annoying phrases clients identified (which you should definitely avoid):

   1. At the end of the day  
   2. 30,000-foot view  
   3. Give 110%  
   4. Think outside of the box
   5. FYI  
   6. 800-pound gorilla  
   7. Throw under the bus
   8. My bad
   9. Right-sizing
  10. Reaching out
  11. Low hanging fruit
  12. Paradigm shift
  13. Take it offline
  14. At this point in time
  15. Synergy
  16. Action item
  17. Skin in the game
  18. Shovel-ready
  19. We don't have the bandwidth (referring to staff)
  20. Circle back   
  21. _________ space (instead of naming industry. "eCommerce space"
  22. Change agent  
  23. Value-added solution  
  24. Incentivize
  25. 360-degree thinking

I have to add one more that particularly bothers me: "Going forward." Where else would we go? Backward?

Review substitutions for these murky words.

Gobbledygook and jargon are the terms I use to describe overused, meaningless words which hide honest communication. Jargon hurts communication, customer perception, and clouds meaning. "Authentic" was once a lovely word that meant genuine and real. No longer. It's applied to everything from staff to servers to company profiles, and it is parroted so often it has lost meaning.

Oxford University's Top Ten Irritating Business Writing Phrases for 2010:

Word “czars” at Lake Superior State University published their 35th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. Their complete 2010 list of words to ban from your business writing are: