Writing Matters

Thirteen Overused and Abused Expressions I’d Like to Outlaw

I recently came across an article about 115 forbidden words and expressions compiled by Randy Michaels, CEO of the Tribune Co.  The company owns the Chicago radio station WGN, and Michaels forbid radio anchors and reporters from using these words.  Among forbidden words and expressions are some that make me cringe as well.

• 5 a.m. in the morning
• at this point in time
• close proximity
• fatal death
• in harm’s way
• icon
• completely destroyed, completely abolished, completely finished or any other completely redundant use

Following up on Michaels' directive, WGN’s news director Charlie Meyerson circulated the list to on-air talent. He directed his staff to report co-worker infractions, noting the precise time and date on "bingo” cards.

That got me thinking about overused and misused words and expressions that I’d like to outlaw. Here are my baker's dozen.  Some of them have been around for a long time and are worn out. Others have worn out their welcome in just a short time. (None are on the WGN list.)

1. Special. You’d have thought that Dana Carey’s SNL parodies of “isn’t that special,” in the 1980s, would have put this on the endangered list. But despite The Church Lady, it's now applied to almost every person, gift, event, activity, organization, and promotion. The result: special is no longer special.
2. Awesome. The Grand Canyon and Taj Mahal are awesome.  Most everything else is not.
3. Absolutely. Perhaps the most overused expression in the English language. Explains CNN'S John Blake: "It's a verbal virus that's spreading unchecked on TV, radio and in print. Want to sound certain? Want to remove all doubt? Want to be a commentator on TV? Absolutely."
4. Issues. A nicer way of saying problems: I have issues with this plan. He has commitment issues. She has health issues. Why not just say problems?
5. Cool. This is a relic from the 1950s. Beatniks were cool.
6. Guys. You guys. Those guys. This expression jumped genders and now refers to any group of people. I particularly hate it when my waiter says, “I’ll be serving you guys.”
7. Throw under the bus. Shorthand for sacrificing a person for political gain. Among those who were or weren’t thrown under the bus by President Obama were Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Obama’s grandmother. Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod was thrown under the bus for an out-of-context remark then pulled out from under the bus when it became known that she was a civil rights activist. On the Republican side, Scooter Libby was thrown under the bus by Vice President Dick Cheney.
8. Not so much. Edgy satirist Lenny Bruce used this phrase in the 1960s. But the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart popularized it. When asked which Democrat he saw stepping forward to lead the party: "I like this guy John Kennedy. Since him, not so much."
9. My bad. This one grated on me from the time I first heard it, and it continues to feel like chalk on a squeaky board.  (Talk about outdated expressions! Marking pen on a white board?) While historians trace this back to Shakespeare, it came into the mainstream with the 1995 movie Clueless. Cher (Alicia Silverstone) swerves to avoid hitting a bicyclist. “Whoops, my bad.”
10. It is what it is. This bit of Zen philosophy has come to mean whatever you want it to mean. Among the meanings: screw it, that’s the way it is, nothing we can do about it, and que sera, sera. It normally puts the brakes on discussion. What can you say in response?
11. Not that I’m. . .  (prejudiced, racist, homophobic, sexist). This almost always precedes a statement that shows prejudice. Explains Rational Wiki, "These words are spoken in the mistaken belief that simply saying 'I'm not prejudiced' is enough to exempt the speaker from responsibility for the offensive comment they are about to make." 
12. Get it. He gets it. She doesn’t get it. These phrases express exasperation at someone's failure to understand something. It owes its popularity to the great communicator Ronald Reagan. In a 1980s presidential debate, then candidate Reagan chided his opponent, President Jimmy Carter: "You just don't get it, do you?"
13. Shellacking. Okay, this is a preemptive strike. President Obama used it to describe the Democrats' heavy losses in the 2010 mid-term election. But I’ve heard it enough times since then to merit its inclusion in the list.

Alas, I’m not the head of a large media conglomerate. I don’t have the power to enforce or humiliate those who use my outlawed expressions. Compliance is voluntary; I can only plead.

What's on your list of overused and abused expressions? Leave a comment or send me an e-mail. I'll compile the list and post it.

--Marilynne Rudick 

Lessons From the Insurance Industry: You Don't Need a Gecko to Set the Right Tone

We recently evaluated the correspondence of a major insurance company and its competitors. Using a benchmarking tool we developed, we rated their e-mails and letters to customers on seven Standards. One Standard that we carefully looked at was tone:  "Correspondence is written in a personal, professional tone."

While the topic of the correspondence frequently involved complex legal and regulatory issues, the insurance companies did a very good job of creating a personal and professional tone. Exactly how did they do this? We've identified the excellent strategies they used and provided some examples. We've also flagged some lapses in tone that you may find creeping into your own correspondence. 

We think these do's and don'ts provide guidance on creating the right tone in any industry or organization. 

Strategies That Create a Personal, Professional Tone

1. Do use personal pronouns.

• You will receive your ATM/Debit Card by mail within seven to ten days.
• You're automatically enrolled in our free online bill paying program. 

2. Do use active voice.

• Send your payment to the address on your billing statement.

3. Do use action verbs.

• You can pay bills, transfer funds, request your auto ID card, place stock trades, set up alerts and more.

4. Do use plain, simple language.

• We’re letting you know about those changes so you can take advantage of today’s earning levels and rewards. You will not lose points, and you have until March 31, 2010, to redeem your points at the current level.

5. Do use words that show respect for customers.

• You are a valued customer, and we thank you for banking with us.
• For more information, please call a customer service representative at XXXX. We apologize for this inconvenience and look forward to continuing to serve your financial needs. 

Tone Lapses That Make the Writing Stiff and Bureaucratic

1. Don't use passive voice.

• No action is necessary unless this activity occurred without your knowledge or permission.

2.  Don't use bureaucratic language. 

• Our records show that on 5/12/09 at 11:44 AM, you accessed your online account and established or updated the following information: Password
• The disclosed and corrected information is as follows:
• We are enclosing an "Important Information About Damage Caused by Flooding" notice, which you should also keep with the above referenced policy.

3. Don't use inflated and clichéd words and phrases.

• Rest assured that you will continue to enjoy unparalleled value from our rewards program.
• Due to the new regulations
• These are challenging economic times for everyone.

4.  Don't use caveats and legalese. 

• Based on the information you provided and certain assumptions we made (such as assumptions about the credit report information we obtained) to calculate this estimate, the estimated cost for the auto insurance we discussed with the coverages, limits and deductibles shown below is $407/6 months.

What did we learn by evaluating insurance industry correspondence? It doesn't take a gecko to communicate with customers. The right tone is not a matter of accent or species. It's choosing the right words. 

-- Marilynne Rudick

"Attrit" or Death By Buzzword

I've spent the last two days attending (and speaking at) the ACCE Call Center Management Conference. I have heard lots of insightful presentations about providing excellent customer service and I've met some really intelligent and interesting people. It's been a great event.

And I have heard some buzzwords! Some buzzwords that are new to me and that strain the English language to the breaking point. We're not talking about the tame paradigm shift or the old school think outside the box. No, we are talking about some killer buzzwords, ones that leave actual meaning in the ditch beside the road.

Here's a short list of new items for my buzzword collection:

• baked in, as in "That analytics feature is baked into our system."
• scale, as in "This project model is not going to scale."
• federate, as in "Our group needed to federate the task."
• decisioning, as in "We used real time decisioning to spur proactive events."
• career pathing, as in "We have a low rate of staff turnover because we offer career pathing."
• space, as in "We intend to be leaders in the pharmaceutical space."
• incent, as in "We incent our sales team for bringing in repeat business."

My all-time favorite buzzword:

• attrit, as in "Generally, we don't want to lay people off. We'd rather attrit them."

Do you love buzzwords? When you attend a meeting or a conference, do you enjoy a robust round of Business Buzzword Bingo? If so, let's keep the list going. Send me your favorite buzzwords or post a comment here.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

Is Using "and/or" in a Sentence Just Plain Dumb?

A colleague of mine—an expert online editor and web content manager—sent me this e-mail last week:

Leslie - 

Can you give me some style guidance or a citation that says “using ‘and/or’ in a sentence is just plain dumb"? I was editing some web pages and ran across this construction at least four times. I wanted to tell the writer to NEVER do this again but wanted some source material. I struggle to keep our pages from sounding too “researchery” or “lawyery” and, given where I work, that’s tough.

Always interested in being helpful, and in stamping out anything that's just plain dumb, I did some quick research online to see if style guides or other editorial experts also dislike and/or. Here's what I found:

• The Writing Styleguide and Dictionary of Plain English, published by Duncan Kent & Associates, advises writers to avoid using and/or where either and or or will do.
• The UC Berkeley iNews Style Guide tells writers to avoid the slash, avoid and/or, and to just use or. 
• The American Chemical Society's Style Guide places and/or in Chapter 1 under the heading "Words and Phrases To Avoid," stating that writers should replace and/or with either and or or, depending on their meaning.
• In the American Anthropological Association's Style Guide, the and/or advice is simple: "never use." And leave it to anthropologists to put the advice in a chapter titled "Orthography."
• The APA Research Style Crib Sheet doesn't waffle either: "Do not use and/or."

So the verdict is in: and/or is JPD (just plain dumb).  Do you agree? Comment here or e-mail me with your opinion.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

Proofreading Tips for Finding Errors in Your Own Writing

Reading the newspaper each day, I catch frequent errors in grammar and usage. It’s easy for me to find errors in newspapers—and, in general, in the writing of others. What’s hard is finding errors in my own writing. By the time I get to the proofreading stage, I’ve looked at the document so many times that I see what I think is on the page, not what’s actually there.

My failsafe remedies for finding errors—asking someone else to proofread or putting the document aside for a while before a final proofing—aren’t always practical, especially with tight deadlines.  

Feeling like I’ve exhausted my arsenal of proofreading techniques, I’ve looked to experts (including the Online Writing Lab at University of Arkansas, the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina, Grammar Girl)  for advice  beyond the tried-and-true (read aloud, use spell-check). Here are some new-to-me techniques for catching errors.

1. Proofread for only one kind of error at a time. For example, proof one time for punctuation (or even commas) and look for spelling errors in another read-through. 

2. Check for spelling errors by reading the document backwards. Start with the last word on the last page and work your way back to the beginning. Because content, punctuation, and grammar won’t make any sense, your focus will be entirely on the spelling of each word.

3. Print in an unfamiliar font so that the document looks different. Try a smaller font to force you to read more slowly and concentrate.

4. Make a list of your proofreading gremlins. Are there words you frequently misspell? Do you capitalize headings inconsistently? Do you forget end quotes or the closing parenthesis? Proofread one time for your common errors.

Do occasional typos and other mechanical errors really matter? In a recent Washington Post column on the increase in grammar and usage errors in the newspaper, ombudsman Andrew Alexander quotes a reader on how these errors erode credibility: “If they don’t care about basics like grammar and spelling, how much do they care about factual accuracy?” 

Add your proofreading tips to this list. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail.  

There’s [Grammar] Hell to Pay If You Break These Rules

Grammar rules die hard. I learned that after my post Five Grammar Rules That Beg To Be Broken. I heard from a number of readers who, invoking the ghosts of eighth grade English teachers past, refused to break the rules. Despite my advice, they will not split infinitives or end a sentence with a preposition—ever.

The English language is changing. But some of the rules that we learned are still hard and fast.  Here’s my top five grammar and usage rules that should not be broken. Breaking these rules will land you in grammar hell, where you’ll have to diagram sentences and speak to your eighth grade English teacher in complete sentences—for eternity. 

1. Possession Is 9/10th of The Apostrophe Rule
The apostrophe doesn’t do heavy lifting. Its two main jobs are standing in for missing letters in a contraction and showing possession or ownership. Despite its slim task roster, it’s subject to more than its fair share of abuse. In its job of indicating possession, an apostrophe between the noun and the s shows singular possession. For example, “the doctor’s office” indicates that the office belongs to one doctor. Placing the apostrophe after the s with a plural noun, “the doctors’ office,” shows that the office belongs to more than one doctor.

Some misguided people feel compelled to put the apostrophe between any noun and an s. “The doctor’s have a large office.” This is incorrect. Remember, the apostrophe indicates that the noun is possessive, not plural.

2. Its or It’s? Small Words Big Difference
Confusing it’s and its is probably the grammar error I see most frequently.

• It’s is a contraction for it is. “It’s the best pizza I’ve ever eaten.” 
• Its is a possessive pronoun. “Remove the pizza from its box before reheating." As one of the oddities of the English language, despite indicating possession (See #1), its does not have an apostrophe.

3. “It’s Me, Not I”
For some reason, me has gotten a bad rap. People think that using I is classier or more correct. The truth is me is high class enough when used correctly. So when is that? Me is correct when it is the object of the sentence or object of the preposition—not the subject. “John went to the ballgame with me” is correct because in this sentence John is the subject and me is the object of the preposition. 

The confusion between I and me crops up when there is a compound object. “John went to the ballgame with Susan and me.” You don’t need to grapple with parts of speech to figure this out. Let your ear be the judge. Take away Susan and you are left with “John went to the ballgame with me.” “John went to the ballgame with I” sounds—and is—incorrect.

4. Subject-Verb Disagreement
Errors in subject-verb agreement are also common. The rule is simple enough. A singular subject requires a singular verb. A plural subject requires a plural verb. The problem occurs when writers incorrectly identify the subject.

• Incorrect: “A good set of tools make repairs easier.” This is incorrect because set (singular) not tools (plural) is the subject.
• Correct: “A good set of tools makes repairs easier."

(For those who have difficult identifying the subject of the sentence, try diagramming!)

5. Punctuation with Quotes: Insider’s Rules
A common conundrum: when you have quotation marks combined with other punctuation—comma, period, question mark—do these other punctuation marks go inside or outside the quotation marks? 

In American usage (Chicago Manual of Style Online), periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks. Other punctuation marks—colons, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points—all go outside the quotation marks unless a question mark or an exclamation point is part of the quoted matter.

• The boss asked all employees, “Will you take a cut in pay?” In this example, the question mark goes before the quotation marks because it is part of the quoted matter.
• Did you hear that the boss asked all employees, "Will you take a cut in pay”? In this example, the question mark goes outside of the quotation marks because it applies to the whole sentence, not just the quotation.

Does breaking any of these rules spell surefire disaster for your business or career? That depends. Lands’ End has made a small fortune despite a misplaced apostrophe.  President George W. Bush was not impeached for his subject-verb disagreement: “Is our children learning?"  And Barack Obama—President, Harvard Law Review editor, and book author—has incorrectly used I instead of me repeatedly:  “a very personal decision for Michelle and I.”

So, you may escape cataclysmic ruin in this life and even prosper if you break these rules. But then there’s the afterlife in grammar hell!

--Marilynne Rudick

Idioms: Should You Bend Over Backwards to Avoid Them?

After a blog post on Five Grammar “Rules” That Beg To Be Broken, a reader took me to task for using an idiom. I had written: "First off, what’s an infinitive?" The reader asked: “Is first off appropriate in print? I am of the opinion that it shouldn't even be used in conversation—it sounds flip.”

Frankly, I was taken aback by the question. Using idioms—commonly used words or phrases whose meaning can’t be derived from the individual words—is second nature. There are so many idioms and they are so common that it is hard not to use them. I’ve found that when I rewrite something to avoid an idiom, I often end up substituting another idiom for the one I’m trying to avoid.

So, is it okay to use idioms in your writing? It depends on what you are writing, your audience—and the idiom. If your writing is conversational and informal, as are most blog posts, websites, and marketing materials, idioms are probably fine. In fact, idioms can make writing concise and reader-friendly.

This idiom-heavy sentence would be appropriate in a blog post.

• At the eleventh hour, the government decided to bail out the banks to keep the economy from nose-diving.

But this idiom-free sentence would be more appropriate in a more formal document, such as a report from the Federal Reserve.

• The government waited until the economic collapse was imminent before deciding to maintain stability in the economy by providing financial assistance to the insolvent banks.

We often judge fluency in a second-language by the speaker’s ability to understand and use idioms correctly. Mangling an idiom is a common mistake of non-native English-speakers.

• His desk was so messy that finding his calendar was like looking for a needle in a pile of straw. (Correct idiom: needle in a haystack.)

On the other hand, idioms can be incomprehensible to non-native English- speakers, especially those idioms that are culturally sensitive (caught off guard, out of left field, Catch 22, New York minute).

Imagine a non-native English speaker trying to parse this paragraph:

We apologize for running out of the camera we advertised as being on sale. We normally bend over backwards to make sure sale items are on hand. But the cameras have been flying off the shelves, so we were caught off guard by the demand.

If you enjoy thinking about idioms, you’ll love the  Idioms by Kids website, which includes this drawing of the idiom Cry your eyes out.

--Marilynne Rudick

Will They (Tweeters) Change Grammar?

It’s not news that language evolves. Nor is it news that the Internet has accelerated the evolution. So no wonder grammar has become a hot topic among Twitter users.

The conversation is focused on a grammatical oddity: we have a gender-neutral plural pronoun they but not a gender-neutral singular pronoun.  If you are talking about more than one person you’d write: “They all keep in touch by texting.” But if you are referring to just one person, you’ve got to be gender-specific: "He (or she) keeps in touch by texting."

Perhaps it is Twitter’s limit of 140 characters per tweet that has pushed this debate to the forefront. Why spend nine characters writing he or she when you can do it with four (they). Twitterers are asking: "Why can’t we have a gender-neutral singular pronoun?" Among the nominees: s/he, he/she, shhe.  Or why can’t we use they as a singular and plural pronoun? “Anyone who thinks they qualify for the bonus should contact their supervisor."

Of course grammar traditionalists say we already have a gender-neutral singular pronoun: he.  But since the 1970s, we’ve been making language gender neutral. Chairperson has replaced chairman, mail carrier has replaced mailman, flight attendant has replaced stewardess. And: “Each applicant will have his or her loan documents reviewed.”

Some grammarians have thrown in the towel on the they-as-singular-pronoun debate: R.W. Burchfield, editor of The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, writes that it’s only a matter of time before this practice becomes standard English. The Chicago Manual of Style straddles the fence. “Though some writers are comfortable with the occasional use of they as a singular pronoun, some are not, and it is better to do the necessary work to recast a sentence or, other options having been exhausted, use he or she.” 

I’m not about to weigh in on this grammar controversy. (If you think the health care debate is nasty…) Instead, I’m offering three character-light options for editing this sentence: Each applicant will have his loan documents reviewed by the committee. (71 characters)

Three Twitter-Friendly Work-Arounds for the Singular/Plural Pronoun Problem

1. Use a plural nounn.
   Applicants will have their loan documents reviewed by the committee. (68 characters)
2. Eliminate pronouns when possible.
   Each applicant will have loan documents reviewed by the committee. (66 characters)
3. Use second person pronouns you or your.
   The committee will review your loan documents. (a slim 46 characters!)

What’s your opinion on the they-as-singular-pronoun debate? Please post your comments.

-- Marilynne Rudick

 

 

 

Crimes Against Clarity: Marketese and Malaprops

"These people really need you."  That's what I hear just before a reader, client, or other word lover shows me some buzzword-loaded, abstraction-choked paragraph of marketese she's found online. And that's what Writing Matters reader Jill Leahy said to me when she forwarded this spectacle of bureaucratic PR verbiage published by the Federal Reserve in a press release last spring:

The TALF is designed to catalyze the securitization markets by providing financing to investors to support their purchases of certain AAA-rated asset-backed securities (ABS).

But "catalyze the securitization markets" pales in comparison to this dreadful clump of Frost & Sullivan marketing copy submitted (but not written by) by reader Jennifer Plath.

The sales of machine vision (MV) systems witnessed continuous growth until mid-2008 due to strong fundamentals - rapid innovation rates and the deployment of machine vision in an ever increasing range of applications. However economic recessionary trends affecting the manufacturing sector adversely have triggered a decline in the vision systems market since the last quarter of 2008. Nevertheless high innovation rates and new applications development continue to open up new vistas of growth for the machine vision industry. Cutting down vision system integration and development costs, acquiring strong core technology capabilities in vision systems integration, and diversification of business to new applications and markets are key requirements for sustenance for players in the MV market.

Jennifer was right on the money when she described this paragraph as terribly wordy, indicted its tortured sentences, and commented that it is "... hard to read, even though there isn’t that much being said."

And while we're on the topic of writers' "word stumbles" (or outright word crimes) we've started a running list of malaprops and hope you'll add to it. Reader Barbara Hughes, who has an eye for these things, sent us:

• a gluten for punishment
• for all intensive purposes
• Wa-lah! (instead of Voila!)

Krista Molino (via Twitter) has contributed:

• mute point

My two malaprop finds for the week are:

• just my two sense
• all the sudden

And Marilynne has contributed what has to be this week's winner:

• flash in the pants

Let's keep the list growing. Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses ... I mean send me your examples of marketese or malaprops or post them as a comment. I can't wait to read what you've found.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan