Issue No. 12, January 2007
Dear Reader,
I hope everyone had a relaxing buzzword-free holiday. To start the new year, we’re featuring some of the irritating words
and expressions sent in by readers.
Elizabeth Cockle
Copywriter and Buzzword Banisher
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In this issue...
- Readers’ Pet Peeves
- Parting Words
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Readers’ Pet Peeves
- Actionable: This word has a clear dictionary meaning as “subject to or giving cause for legal
proceedings”. So if you’re in the habit of handing out actionable items instead of action items, don’t
be surprised if you get a call from the police.
- Good to go: Originally a military term denoting readiness, this phrase can now have a more salacious
connotation – definitely good to get lost.
- High touch inspirational: This example of business speak seems to be pretty new – whatever it
means – so let’s nip it in the bud. Please write to all the marketing experts and business schools you know.
- Impactful: We’ve dealt with “verbing” in past issues. Here’s a great example
of “adjectiving” – taking a perfectly good noun and mangling it into an awkward adjective. This one’s a favourite of
managers and marketers with limited vocabularies. Use influential or effective instead.
- Learnings: We all grew up learning our lessons. Now we’re apparently invited to learn
our learnings.
- Pain point: Here’s a good example of a useful descriptive expression that’s become a sore point
through overuse, if not a problem or an issue that needs to be resolved.
- One [insert here] at a time: These days we seem to rejoice in tackling every issue or problem
one item at a time – or perhaps one pain point at a time. We used to do these things methodically or systematically.
- Utilize: Popular with those who think that the more syllables a word has, the more impactful it is.
What’s wrong with use? But if you must utilize utilize, reserve it for those situations where the usage described is
original or particularly effective.
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Parting Words
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.”
– Albert Einstein, physicist
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