It’s a new year, so time to ring in interesting and meaningful words to your business writing.
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:
1. Shovel-ready
2. Transparent/Transparency
3. Czar
4. Tweet
5. App
6. Sexting
7. Friend as a verb
8. Teachable Moment
9. In These Economic Times…
10. Stimulus
11. Toxic Assets
12. Too Big to Fail
13. Bromance
14. Chillaxin’
15. Obama as a prefix
Any other trendy words from 2009 you are ready to retire?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Authentic/Authenticity
Monetize is a word I have long ago grown tired of, personally. The very concept insinuates that a thing is not valuable unless someone, somewhere, can come up with a means to make money off of it, and that almost any thing can be (and should be) made profitable, regardless of whether or not it truly has any intrinsic worth.
Twitter Comment
I vote “transparency” for #1: RT @M_Cullen: Business writing words to ban for 2010: [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Twitter Comment
RT @M_Cullen: Business writing words to ban for 2010: [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Twitter Comment
RT: @expertwriter , @M_Cullen: Business writing words to ban for 2010: [link to post] | So tired of “teachable moment”
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Thank you, Mary.
It’s good to watch for these in our business writing. A common one I particularly dislike in business writing is the verb ‘drive’. For example, ‘drive change’, ‘drive sales’ and ‘drive profits’.
Cheers,
Michael Gladkoff
Business Writing at Word Nerds
I can’t bear “quantitative easing”, which really means printing money!