Jargon
More bad words - banned by the New York Times
A little while ago I was fascinated by a post I read on the BBC website with a list issued by the British government of their banned buzzwords.
I spent about an hour last night catching up on some of my RSS feeds (which have fallen badly by the wayside since I've been helping Nee out with her wedding preparations) and design blogger Swiss Miss had a post to a fantastic New York Times blog post in the same vein called Words We Don't Say by Hugo Lindgren.
The story goes that when he first began his job at the New York Times, Kurt Andersen who was the editor at the time has a fantastic list stuck on the wall of his office of words that writers were forbidden to use in their articles. Wherever possible these words would be edited out. This is the image accompanying the article. Click on the image to view the NY Times post:
According to Hugo Lindgren this list is from 1977 at the latest, which was when he started his position at the newspaper, and yet fascinatingly almost all of the words on this list could be applied to a banned-words list of today. I like the comments on the article which suggest some more words: decidedly, going forward, utilize (omg I completely agree!!), however, arguably, impact, reach out to (instead of contact), and decidedly.
Also via SwissMiss I browsed over to a brilliant site that appeals strongly to my desire for order: ListGeeks. The homepage is made up of a grid of various lists by users (eg favourite smells, movies they want to see etc) and one lovely list screamed out at me: Terrible "Corporate Speak" Words by stilltron.
British-government's banned buzzwords
In March last year the British government issued an official list of words that have been banned from use by the councils in order that council members effectively communicate. Read the BBC reports on this.
I find this quite amusing.. and I also think that this is a Good Thing, albeit a rather daft list ("client" is a buzzword?). With people everywhere reading many of the same things thanks to the high-speed information sharing of the internet, the meanings of catchy phrases will often become warped or altogether changed, and either way, lose their meaning and their impact.
The full list of the banned words below:
| Agencies | Ambassador | Area based |
| Area focused | Autonomous | Baseline |
| Beacon | Benchmarking | Best Practice |
| Blue sky thinking | Bottom-Up | CAAs |
| Can do culture | Capabilities | Capacity |
| Capacity building | Cascading | Cautiously welcome |
| Challenge | Champion | Citizen empowerment |
| Client | Cohesive communities | Cohesiveness |
| Collaboration | Commissioning | Community engagement |
| Compact | Conditionality | Consensual |
| Contestability | Contextual | Core Message |
| Core principles | Core Value | Coterminosity |
| Coterminous | Cross-cutting | Cross-fertilisation |
| Customer | Democratic legitimacy | Democratic mandate |
| Dialogue | Direction of travel | Distorts spending priorities |
| Double devolution | Downstream | Early Win |
| Edge-fit | Embedded | Empowerment |
| Enabler | Engagement | Engaging users |
| Enhance | Evidence Base | Exemplar |
| External challenge | Facilitate | Fast-Track |
| Flex | Flexibilities and Freedoms | Framework |
| Fulcrum | Functionality | Funding streams |
| Gateway review | Going forward | Good practice |
| Governance | Guidelines | Holistic |
| Holistic governance | Horizon scanning | Improvement levers |
| Incentivising | Income streams | Indicators |
| Initiative | Innovative capacity | Inspectorates |
| Interdepartmental | Interface | Iteration |
| Joined up | Joint working | LAAs |
| Level playing field | Lever | Leverage |
| Localities | Lowlights | MAAs |
| Mainstreaming | Management capacity | Meaningful consultation |
| Meaningful dialogue | Mechanisms | Menu of Options |
| Multi-agency | Multidisciplinary | Municipalities |
| Network model | Normalising | Outcomes |
| Output | Outsourced | Overarching |
| Paradigm | Parameter | Participatory |
| Partnership working | Partnerships | Pathfinder |
| Peer challenge | Performance Network | Place shaping |
| Pooled budgets | Pooled resources | Pooled risk |
| Populace | Potentialities | Practitioners |
| Predictors of Beaconicity | Preventative services | Prioritization |
| Priority | Proactive | Process driven |
| Procure | Procurement | Promulgate |
| Proportionality | Protocol | Provider vehicles |
| Quantum | Quick hit | Quick win |
| Rationalisation | Rebaselining | Reconfigured |
| Resource allocation | Revenue Streams | Risk based |
| Robust | Scaled-back | Scoping |
| Sector wise | Seedbed | Self-aggrandizement |
| Service users | Shared priority | Shell developments |
| Signpost | Single conversations | Single point of contact |
| Situational | Slippage | Social contracts |
| Social exclusion | Spatial | Stakeholder |
| Step change | Strategic | Strategic priorities |
| Streamlined | Sub-regional | Subsidiarity |
| Sustainable | Sustainable communities | Symposium |
| Synergies | Systematics | Taxonomy |
| Tested for Soundness | Thematic | Thinking outside of the box |
| Third sector | Toolkit | Top-down |
| Trajectory | Tranche | Transactional |
| Transformational | Transparency | Upstream |
| Upward trend | Utilise | Value-added |
| Vision | Visionary | Welcome |
We could use such a list in tech. Web 2.0 anyone?
