Dan Santow (a senior VP at PR firm Edelman) had a great post on his blog Word Wise about words that people latch onto and use “until their meaning and power dies.”
His list of “words that have fallen into the death trap” includes some pet peeves of mine (many of them much beloved by the tech industry). You know the ones: seamless, synergistic, best-of-breed, mission critical, value-added, leverage, granular and win-win. His great advice:
“If every time you’re about to use one of these words you stop and force yourself to think of a new way of saying whatever it is you want to say, a) you’ll be doing the world a favor; b) you’ll force yourself to think about what it is you really want to say; and c) your writing will be more vivid, more true, and far more compelling.”
Thanks to Judy Gombita for pointing out Dan’s blog.