Language to Avoid

1. Clichés

Clichés are words and phrases that are overused. Some clichés are particularly common in work environments, like “try and think outside the box,” or “this is win-win.” Clichés are generally harmless in small group discussions and may quickly convey your meaning. But, in more formal situations, or external communication, they can make your meaning unclear or simply make your writing or speech less compelling. Many clichés do not have an obvious meaning to someone who is unfamiliar with the phrase, such as “got the receipts,” “the new normal,” and “die on that hill.” Others may be rooted in stereotypes or have other offensive origins.

did you know

Cliché and stereotype have the same historic meaning, referring to a printing process for producing large quantities of the same page. Cliché is the French term for the process known in English as stereotype. What the terms now have in common is taking a mental shortcut by copying, whether a common phrase or a common idea about a group of people.

try it

Consider the following sentence. Can you spot the clichés? How would you revise it?
“I decided I’d had it with the regular day-to-day but I was completely in the dark. I knew I wanted to do something really out of the box, but I was lost about what might fit the bill.”

term to know

Cliché

A clichés is words or phrase that is overused; many do not have an obvious meaning to someone who’s never heard it before.

2. Jargon

Jargon (also called lingo) is the vocabulary associated with a particular activity, group, or profession, and which is typically not well understood outside that context. Within the group, jargon may help members of the group refer to specialized concepts. For example, plumbers use terms like “sweating the pipes,” and “rough-in.” To other plumbers, these terms explain entire processes that might otherwise take several minutes to describe without jargon; for non-plumbers, the terms likely don't mean much at all.

In other cases, jargon might exist to intentionally keep the real meaning from outsiders. For example, a tech support person might use the term “PEBKAC” to communicate to another tech person that the user is simply not using the device correctly. (The term stands for “problem exists between keyboard and chair,” in other words, the user is the problem.) Jargon may be used simply because it is part of the culture. For example, “two dots and a dash, and shingles with a shimmy,” is diner lingo for eggs, bacon, and toast with jam. There is no real need for a specialized language, but it’s part of the work culture in that industry and the creativity and wit of the lingo adds some fun to an otherwise repetitive job.

Even specific organizations can develop a private language that is meaningful to people who work there. Perhaps the break room is called “Cobin’s corner,” because a staff member by that name has an adjacent office, or the always-malfunctioning copier becomes known as “the beast,” and the copy room becomes “the lair.” Such language happens organically and usually has inherent camaraderie to it; it is part of the informal communication that helps build effective working relationships. However, the language becomes so familiar that you forget it isn’t familiar outside the group. You might be training a new staff member and say, “I need to drop by Cobin’s corner, meet me in the lair in five minutes,” and the person has no idea what you mean!

Always keep your audience in mind. If you are addressing only members of a specialized field, using field-specific jargon will signal to your audience that you are also a member of the field and may allow you to talk about higher or specific concepts. It may also be used to humorous effect. However, if you are speaking to a broader group with no specialized knowledge, using jargon will only alienate or confuse your audience. If some technical terms are absolutely necessary when speaking to an audience, be sure to explain each term and its context.

For example, if you are writing a department-wide memo, it would be acceptable to use terms specific to your company or department (but keep in mind there might be new hires who have not learned these terms yet). If you are writing a newsletter for customers, it would be better to avoid jargon and use broader language.

term to know

Jargon

The vocabulary associated with a particular activity, group, or profession, and typically not well understood outside that context.

3. Slang

Slang and idiomatic expressions make your writing sound informal and less credible. They can also make it harder for non-native English speakers to understand you.

There are occasions when slang and idiomatic expressions may be appropriate, depending on who your audience is. If you are writing informally or humorously, slang and idiomatic language may help you better express yourself. If you are going to use slang, however, make sure that you’re using it correctly. Customers who are “native speakers” of slang (i.e., people who are a part of the demographic you may be targeting by using slang) can very easily spot a salesperson who doesn’t understand the correct usage of a slang term. Even using the term correctly but out of its usual context can make people cringe, such as when companies use ads mimicking popular memes. Moreover, trying to use slang associated with a different cultural group can be a kind of microaggression.

4. Euphemisms and Doublespeak

Euphemisms are words or phrases used to talk about unpleasant or taboo topics in a more polite way. For example, instead of saying that you are leaving a meeting to urinate, you might say that you “need to step out for a second.” If you are talking about a person who just died, you might say that the person has “passed away.” Euphemisms are usually meant for tact, not out of dishonesty or a lack of transparency.

Doublespeak (coined by author George Orwell in the book “1984”) is a more self-serving form of euphemism that disguises the meaning of words so that the idea seems less unpleasant. For example, the act of terminating a lot of jobs is usually referred to as “downsizing” or “right-sizing.” Even the term “layoff,” is a euphemism, originally meaning a temporary end to employment, but now almost always meaning a permanent loss of employment. Politicians use doublespeak to cloud crimes against humanity, such as calling torture “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or the accidental killing of civilians, “collateral damage.”

Though associated with euphemism, doublespeak can also be used to encourage a negative reaction to something, such as calling protests “riots,” or tax hikes “revenue enhancement.” At its most pernicious, doublespeak manages to change the subject entirely. A pharmaceutical company invented the pseudo-medical term “breakthrough pain,” to change the focus of patients developing a tolerance to (and addiction to) their pain medication.

You may notice that some of the principles discussed earlier, like impression management and proactive communication, feel a bit similar to doublespeak. But in business writing, your purpose should not be to hide meaning but to communicate clearly. In reality, you may be expected to put things in the best terms possible for the image and of the business, particularly in external communications to manage impressions. But there is also an ethical responsibility to tell the truth.

terms to know

Euphemism

Words and phrases to talk about difficult or taboo topics in a more pleasant way.

Doublespeak

The use of euphemism or other indirect phrasing to intentionally misdirect or deceive people.

5. The Passive Voice

The Passive Voice is a grammatical construct where the subject of the sentence is the recipient of the action. In most cases it is simply a bad habit in writing. However it can also be done intentionally as a kind of doublespeak.

You may remember that every sentence has a subject (usually a person, place, or thing) and a verb (what the subject is doing in the sentence). Most sentences (but not all) also have an object (what the subject is doing the verb to.) When giving important news, you generally speak in the active voice. “The dog bit John!” The dog is the subject, bite is the verb, and John is the object.

But let’s say the dog is your pet, so you don’t want to focus on that part. (You know he’s a good boy.) You swap the subject and object so that the dog (the doer) is no longer the subject: “John was bit by the dog!” Notice that now John is the subject, even though he didn’t do anything (except maybe yelp in pain). Moreover, the doing is no longer the verb; “bit” becomes a participle, and the actual verb is “was.” Lastly, the doer of the action is now a simple object of a prepositional phrase. It almost sounds like the dog is an innocent bystander.

It is this lack of anyone doing anything (in grammatical terms) that gives us the label, “passive voice.” The grammatical labeling is less important than recognizing how the tone of the message changes. The real “doer” of the sentence is moved out of apparent importance in the sentence, and the action itself is minimized. You can further layer it with euphemism or simply vagueness to make it even less clear what happened. “John was hurt in contact with an animal.” You can even remove the doer completely. “John got hurt out on a walk.” Now your faithful companion is completely off the hook.

In professional communication, the passive voice is often used to evade responsibility. Scan any newspaper and you will see plenty of examples. “Unarmed man injured in police-involved shooting,” casts vagueness about who fired the gun. “Water downriver of plant exceeds EPA safety protocols,” casts similar doubt about what actually happened and how severe it is. Maybe the plant was brazenly dumping tons of poison into your drinking water, or maybe they happen to be a few miles upriver from where a sample was taken discovering a minor problem.

There are other ways of misdirecting the reader from the unwanted news. “Women accuse CEO of sexual misconduct” reframes a story about a CEO mistreating women by focusing on the victims. The sentence is in the active voice, but follows the same strategy of losing focus on who did what. You may note that sexual misconduct is a euphemism, while labeling the likely victims as accusers is its own kind of doublespeak.

As you read your own work or others, ask yourself: Who did what? Is the who (the doer) the subject of the sentence? Is the doer even in the sentence or simply implied? There may be tension as other pressures at work compel you to communicate without transparency or integrity, but it is important to keep these considerations at the forefront whenever possible.

try it

Look through online newspapers, social media posts by businesses, statements by politicians, and other professional communications. Look for uses of passive voice, doublespeak, clichés, jargon, and slang. Do you think the use is intentional or a bad habit? If intentional, what are they trying to accomplish, and is it successful? Can you reword it in a way that is more transparent?

big idea

Clichés, jargon, slang, and euphemisms are all ways that communicators avoid saying something they don't want to say, for a variety of reasons. You might use slang to avoid formality; jargon to avoid long-winded explanations; euphemisms to avoid uncomfortable truths; and clichés to avoid spending more time on finding more original ways to express a thought. These tools can be used well or they can be used to make communications more boring, less accessible, or less transparent; the key is to use these tools sparingly and only in appropriate contexts.

term to know

Passive Voice

The use of sentence structures where the “doer” is not the subject of the sentence. Passive voice is often flat and boring to read, but, at its worst, is used to redirect attention.