March 12th, 2010
nce again, the Local Government Association has published its annual list of words that public sector officials should avoid using, particularly when talking to real human beings.
Most of them bring back painful memories of the time I spent working for charities, and the interminable meetings which sapped my will to live.
I can’t bear to paste the actual words into my blog – I want to be careful who I attract as readers – but here’s a couple of pictures of the list…
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Government jargon leaves human beings out of the equation »
Author: Ben Locker.
Posted in: Blog, Words | 9 Comments »
March 8th, 2010
his week, someone sent me a meeting appointment for an Ideation Session. Erm, what?
I’ve worked as a copywriter for a big, American company for 4 years now. So I’m fluent in the language of ‘business speak’. (Or, as I’ve affectionately renamed it, Corporate ****. Fill in the blanks – you’ll be right.) But ‘ideation’ has recently moved up my own personal chart of words (is it even one of those?) which is just unnecessary. And ridiculous. And usually used by someone who’s not particularly clever to pretend that they are, in fact, rather clever.
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(Guest post) Bat up your nightdress? Not likely »
Author: Vicky Sandison.
Posted in: Blog, Words | 4 Comments »
March 5th, 2010
’ve just started learning to drive. Lesson three was this morning and, whilst I’m slowly getting the hang of it, I’m still a bit uncertain of the controls.
Most of the time it’s not a problem. Shifting the gear into fourth instead of second isn’t really the end of the world, although tapping the brake instead of the throttle does have the power to surprise both learner and instructor.
Pining for simplicity
This unfamiliarity with controls reminded me when I started using email for work purposes. I was perfectly confident with the technology (I used Pine as far back as 1993, but as I knew only two other people I could write to, the scope for making a cock up was fairly limited), but I really wasn’t familiar with the controls.
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Writers – think before you touch the controls »
Author: Ben Locker.
Posted in: Blog, Everyday Life, Words | 2 Comments »
March 5th, 2010
s I was speaking with Brad Gosse about the name for a new Twitter application, we discussed how these “Web 2.0″ names have cropped up more and more in the last few years. We also remarked on how we just accept these new words and brand names at face value and accept them – no matter how silly.
However, if you are into technology or on the web, many people become familiar with these names and terms – they just seem to know what they are and what they do.
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(Guest post) Warning: words at work »
Author: Sue Varty.
Posted in: Blog, Words | 3 Comments »
February 2nd, 2010
e all have favourite words. Mine include beauties like ‘plop’, ‘scud’ and ‘gargle’, because I like nice sounds more than sophisticated definitions.
But what about the words you hate? The ones that appear like dog turds on the pavement of prose?
I can’t speak for you, but mine are:
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Ten words that make readers recoil »
Author: Ben Locker.
Posted in: Blog, Words | 63 Comments »
January 27th, 2010
grammatical point that’s cropped up a couple of times this week.
Can ‘that’ be used in place of ‘who’?
Copy Editor Nick Howard has strong feelings on the point. He goes as far as insisting that “‘That’ does not refer to people”.
I disagree. I think it can do. Especially if you want to avoid re-using ‘who’ in only a few words.
Who do I mean? The Prime Minister that took us to war with Spain.
Or am I wrong? Who’s that disagreeing with me?
“That” can refer to people »
Author: Ben Locker.
Posted in: Blog, Words | 4 Comments »
January 8th, 2010
hat influenced your writing? I mean, really influenced it?
I’m not talking here about the writers that helped to shape your prose. That’s an easy enough list to rattle off. Mine would put these folks into pole position: Evelyn Waugh, Max Beerbohm, Muriel Spark, P.G. Wodehouse, Richmal Crompton – even the artist J.A.M. Whistler (really – The Gentle Art of Making Enemies is a prose masterpiece).
And whilst all of these writers played a hand in giving me a sort of slangy, easy-listening prose style, there’s one influence that’s been far greater than all of them.
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Is your writing musical and grammatical? »
Author: Ben Locker.
Posted in: Blog, Words | 7 Comments »
August 31st, 2009
he silly season must very nearly be over if we’re already talking about what words have made the Collins English Dictionary.
This year’s tedious publicity stunt has worked by drawing attention to young people’s slang, some of which — wait for it — is used on Twitter. ‘Noob’ and ‘meh’ and ‘mwah’ and ‘OMG’ and ‘wtf’ and all the rest of it.
The real point of the story, though, is contained in this quote from Elain Higgleton, Collins’ editorial director:
In three or four years a lot of these words may have fallen out of use and might well come out of the dictionary.
Or, to put it more plainly, “in three or four years, a lot of these words won’t help sales, and might as well come out of the dictionary.”
No matter: there’ll be plenty of other ‘zeitgeisty’ (yuck) terms to flog future editions.
Just don’t expect me to buy it. This copywriter’s sticking with the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. It’s crammed full of fascinating words, and the real joy of it is that most of them aren’t to be found anywhere on Twitter.
Twitter slang in dictionary. FFS, who cares? »
Author: Ben Locker.
Posted in: Words | No Comments »
August 22nd, 2009
t’s easy enough to make a spelling mistake or grammatical error, especially if you’ve been taught by people who wouldn’t know an adverb if it cheerfully slapped them round the chops with a wet haddock; but, if you’re a politician, it’s best not to do it in public.
Sadly, politicians aren’t always the brightest or luckiest people around, and their language often lands them neck-deep in ordure. It’s even worse when they spell it wrong.
So, in celebration of those politicians who mangle their words and derail their sentences, I present…
The top 10 political spelling and grammar failures
The top 10 political spelling and grammar failures »
Author: Ben Locker.
Posted in: Words | 3 Comments »
August 10th, 2009
ne of the most disgraceful stories I’ve read over the last week is the saga of how Apple banned a dictionary from its online Apps Store — because it contained rude words. The dictionary in question, Ninjawords, was only made available to iPhone and iPod Touch customers when some of the offending vocabulary was removed. And even then, only people aged 17 or older were allowed to download it.
As soon as the story broke, Apple found itself caught up in whirl of negative publicity. The company wheeled out a senior employee, Phil Schiller, to defend its actions. His argument boiled down to ‘this dictionary was ruder than normal dictionaries’.
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Apple shouldn’t take leaves from anyone’s books »
Author: Ben Locker.
Posted in: Words | 5 Comments »
