Jargon and Business Writing

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(Issue 26: March, 2010) by Mary Cullen

I sat in on a conference call yesterday, and heard the phrase "authenticity parameter" used. I was puzzled. Did this mean the edges of truth? Later in the call, the same speaker said his company was built by "authentic people." I hope so. Can fake people build a company?

Business-speak and jargon are the terms I use to describe overused, meaningless words which hide honest communication. Business-speak 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 Phrases for 2009:

• "We're a truly global business in every sense of the word."  (Truly global? What? As opposed to only partially global? And in every sense of what word? Global? Oh, like "spherical"?)

• "Going forward." (What other direction is possible?)
  

• "Reach out" to someone. (As in "We reached out to our stakeholders.")

• "Stakeholders"

• "Additionally" (What happened to "and" and "also?")

• "To bite the bullet" (I hear it used all the time and it evokes these images of the War of Independence and it usually is being used by city-types who don't look like they've been outdoors recently.)

• "First and foremost," and "first of all." (These are already written on the first part of the letter, there's no need to say "first...")

• "It is what it is." (I suspect this masks "I don't know what it is.")
  

• "No problem." (It should never be a problem to do your job.)

• "I'm just saying."

• Synthesizing new verbs simply by adding the -ize suffix, e.g. "incentivize".

• "Circle Back" (As in, once you have completed this project, circle back and we'll go over it. Really? I can't just "get back to you"? You want me to literally do a circle dance first!)

• "Please find enclosed..." (Am I being told it is enclosed because they assume I am blind?)

• ASAP (makes me want to scream! Please give me a real date.)
  

Notice how irked our readers were with these phrases. I think this is not merely because they hear them too often. Business communication is human to human communication. Hiding behind meaningless, bantered-about terms makes your reader feel ignored, disconnected, and talked down.

Business writers are sometimes hesitant to let their own personalities shine in their writing. That is a mistake. Use your natural writer's voice and your own words.

That is real authenticity.

Error: Hunt and Correct

This paragraph contains an error. Find and correct it. 

Budgets were reduced by 15% in 2009, yet our workload increased 34%. Even with the increased workload, I shouldn't of hired additional staff.

The answer is here.