July, 2011
Americanisms: irritating invaders of UK English or welcome visitors?
I enjoyed Matthew Engel’s article, ‘Why do some Americanisms irritate people?’ which ran yesterday on the BBC News website’s News Magazine.
Engel says, that while we accept some words from across The Pond, others are more irritating. For instance we use words such as lengthy, reliable, talented, influential, and tremendous without a second thought but they are all US imports.
As he says, “American usages no longer swim to our shores as single spies, as “reliable” and “talented” did. They come in battalions.” And it’s true that some really do grate on British ears!
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Wimbledon tennis commentators serve faulty phrase
So Wimbledon is over for another year and I’m trying to adjust to tennis-free days. One thing I won’t miss though is that horrible phrase ‘the business end’ that too many of the match commentators used too often.
I got tired of hearing, ‘well, we’re at the business end of the set now.’ Ugh. Not only is it plain ugly, but like all phrases that become over-used, it jars. You have to be very careful, in writing as well as in speech, about becoming reliant on certain distinctive words, phrases, and devices.
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Is ‘solutions’ the most over-used word in the dictionary?
It may only comprise eight letters but the word ‘solution’ can drive me to hysterical rants. I really do loathe it. It’s just so over-used in marketing copy, and worse still, as part of a company name.
Businesses seem to think it makes them sound dynamic and professional. Well it doesn’t. It makes them seem dull, unimaginative, dated, and as a PR friend of mine suggested – ‘lazy-brained’.
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Jargon alert: mid-weight copywriter needed
Imagine my bewilderment when this turned up in my inbox earlier:
Seeking a mid-weight copywriter
Our client, a well-established beauty retailer, is looking for a mid-weight copywriter…
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What’s the point of political slogans?
Hot on the heels of my post about straplines, here’s a BBC News online article speculating on the sound-bite Cameron will use to close the Tory conference.
As with straplines, a lot of thought and care has to go into political party soundbites. Yeah, I know. Hard to believe when you hear some of them. Some sound as though they’ve been scribbled on an expenses chit in the back of a limo, on the way back to that second home. Others reek of a slick advertising agency.
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Predictors of beaconicity banned from holistically synergising stakeholder engagement
No it doesn’t make sense but so much local authority speak doesn’t. However the Local Government Association’s ban on jargon certainly does.
R Inglish speling & punctuation 2 hard 4 kidz?
A couple of months ago I read in a Times article that the president of the Spelling Society wants to dump the apostrophe. Apparently he also suggested pupils should be allowed to spell words phonetically. Mmm great idea.
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