A to Z of Plain Text

Jargon is defined by Chambers dictionary as ‘the terminology of a profession’ but also as ‘unintelligible talk, gibberish; chatter, twittering’. Jargon has an important place as a ‘dialect’, so that people with common interests or expertise can communicate quickly and efficiently. As with any dialect, the problem comes when there is a different level of […]

We promise to double your salary — guaranteed. If you received a letter or saw an advertisement so claiming, would you read further? This example may be hype (see Hype) – deliberately evocative, almost certainly excessive, but it’s undoubtedly captivating. Powerful introductions improve the chances of your copy being read. If the audience is discouraged […]

Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration used for effect. Much relied upon by advertisers, its short form — hype — means much the same thing. And whilst audiences expect a degree of puffery in advertisements, they demand honesty in business writing. Most dictionaries also define hype as ‘a deception or racket’ as a noun, or ‘to falsify […]

“…of no importance as long as we make our meaning plain” George Orwell You could achieve grammatical perfection and produce a piece of work of dubious clarity. Churchill concurred with Orwell. Commenting on a cabinet paper in which the author had tortuously avoided ending a sentence with a preposition, he noted in the margin: “This […]

Sales training courses go to great lengths to ensure that delegates understand the difference between a feature (such as a flat screen for your computer) and a benefit (it takes up less space on you desk). Why is this? A key reason is that much sales literature continually gets it wrong. How often do you […]

Despite spam and information overload, email remains a useful way of communicating. And although we mostly use it as a ‘one-to-one’, personal medium, email is also an ideal vehicle for communicating with large groups. You can update customers, send out news, promote services and sell — all by email. When it’s used to communicate between […]

(Words being considered for the Oxford English Dictionary) According to George W. Bush, “Saddam Hussein has sidestepped, crawfished, wheedled out of any agreement he has made. He’s stiffing the world.” One might not know precisely what the President has in mind when he speaks of crawfishing and stiffing, but most of us could hazard a […]

Avoid them, unless they’re funny. ‘Pulling out all the stops’ is a cliché. Use it only when referring to organists. As a matter of fact, in our humble opinion, clichés should be consigned to the dustbin once and for all (excuse the irony and quartet of clichés here). Once you’ve fallen into the habit (oops) […]