As we say good riddance to 2020 (finally!), here’s a look back at the 10 most-viewed posts on my blog during this pandemic year.
Words are my business and pleasure, and it appears many of you share my interest in getting rid of jargon and corporate buzzwords. Will it ever happen? Not this year.
1. The post that got the most traffic this year was a look at the dated but still-used term man-hours. How is this still hanging around? I don’t know. In Really? ‘Man-hours’? The hunt for inclusive language continues, I look at the term and easily find more inclusive alternatives, like work-hours or staff-hours.
Other popular posts talked about words that were seriously overused in 2020:
2. Play ‘lockdown bingo’ with corporate clichés looked at the words and phrases we all heard way too much of in 2020 (like unprecedented, abundance of caution and ramping up) and explained or proposed alternates for them.
3. Double down on your COVID-19 jargon cleaning efforts suggested explanations and alternate words for many of the confusing words and phrases related to the pandemic, like efficacy and asymptomatic.
4. As companies talked about how much information to share with employees during the pandemic, and how often, one word kept cropping up. In The ‘cadence’ of jargon is stepping up, I talk about alternatives to cadence (try frequency) and other jargon (pivot, bespoke, unpack) that makes people roll their eyes.
5. The word amazing got a workout at the Academy Awards, but aren’t we more likely to experience good rather than amazing situations? Sometimes good gets overworked, too, so I went looking for options. The result is 70 good, better, best alternatives to good.
My posts often share tips for writing content for articles and newsletters that is worth the read:
6. Readers might skim your text, but chances are they look more closely at the headline, photo and caption. In Reel in reader attention with captions that captivate, I share some do’s and don’ts for effective captions. For example, convey your main message but don’t tell the whole story, and don’t be boring.
7. Thanks to the pandemic, we didn’t get together in person much in 2020. Writer and digital marketer Ann Handley says this is a great time to launch something you might find unexpected: an email newsletter. In What’s the best length for my e-newsletter?, I look at length and give seven tips for content readers will appreciate.
I also like to talk about the “independent life,” and more people got a chance to experience part of that lifestyle by working from home:
8. In ‘Social distancing’ due to COVID-19? Here’s how to successfully work from home, I shared some tips based on my own years of having a home office. Even though many people apparently spent much of the year in sweatpants or pyjamas, one of my suggestions is to dress somewhere in between that and your usual work attire.
9. My yearly recommendations for Fun gifts for writers and readers, 2020 edition included ideas and pointers to places to shop local, an especially important effort this year.
Reminders that “life is short” seem to crop up often in my life:
10. If this year has taught us anything, it’s that we need to “get up and run and scream,” as I outlined in a post about life-changing events, Life is fragile, so don’t waste it. Update to the post: My own fall did end up breaking my glasses, but not my leg or hip or anything else harder to replace.
As always, thank you for reading. Here’s to a reset of all that was wrong in 2020, and a way better year in 2021.
Related reading:
The top 10 posts of 2019
The top 10 posts of 2018
The top 10 posts of 2017
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay.