What are the worst words most commonly used in press releases and speeches?
We all might have our favourites. Now in its 10th year Buzzsaw, compiled by Hamish Thompson, checks documents against thousands of buzzwords and clichés to come up with a Hall of Shame.
This year’s reverse winners include curated, “a word brutalised by Hipster culture”, disambiguate, “a word that obscures the thing it seeks to clarify”, bake “please stop using this as a noun”, going forward, “we long for the day someone writes ‘going backward’” and ideation, which means….we’ve no idea.
I think corporate Britain has actually done pretty well with language during the crisis.
RNS’s are fairly clear of jargon. Some standard phrases appear endlessly, but that’s understandable.
As for press releases (and emails), I reckon they are getting worse.
It would be interesting to know why…
