For years, we (and countless articles and radio features) have been ranting about the misuse or overuse of words like ‘innovative’, ‘solutions’ and ‘going forward’. But we still see them everywhere, so we sometimes wonder whether we’re fighting a losing battle.
Fortunately, thanks to BBC News Magazine’s list of 2013’s most overused words, our campaign now has a fresh batch of targets. Okay, there are some old favourites in there – like ‘delivery’, ‘robust’ and ‘passion’, which we’ve always pruned from anything we’ve worked on – but now we can take our secateurs to other offenders, such as ‘iconic’ and ‘legacy’. 2014 is looking brighter already.
I’m not sure we’ll have much trouble with some of them though. There’s little danger of ‘twerk’, ‘amazeballs’ or ‘yeah-no’ muddying the clear waters of business communication. (At least not this year, we hope.) But we’ll be extra vigilant about ‘absolutely’, ‘responsible’ and using ‘do’ out of place.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Read the full list at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23362207
Leave a comment