Business Writing Info Blog

Top 25 Jargon and Gobbledygook Phrases 2011

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(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.

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