Everyday words and phrases work best for clear and persuasive writing. Here are some helpful tips for avoiding bizspeak and telling it like it is.

You could be losing influence, time and money if your emails, proposals and marketing content fail to win people over. Worse, you could even be repelling readers with two much bizspeak and jargon.

With so much complexity already swirling around us, it’s more important than ever to remove buzzwords and simplify your messages. Plain writing works better because it actually sounds like how we talk to each other.

Avoiding bizspeak is covered in one of the many helpful chapters found in Bryan A. Garner’s “HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.” It’s a great source of inspiration and guidance for daily business writing which is why I keep it handy at all times.

Garner has even created the Bizspeak Blacklist. Hunt these down and get rid of them. He’s also suggested alternative phrasing in the chart below:

actionable (apart from legal action)

agreeance

as per

at the end of the day

back of the envelope

bandwidth (outside electronics)

bring our A game

client-centered

come-to-Jesus

core competency

CYA

drill down

ducks in a row

forward initiative

going forward

go rogue

guesstimate

harvesting efficiencies

hit the ground running

impact, vb.

incent

incentivize

impactful

kick the can down the road

let’s do lunch

let’s take this offline

level the playing field

leverage, vb.

liaise

mission-critical

monetize

net-net

on the same page

operationalize

optimize

out of pocket (except in reference to expenses)

paradigm shift

parameters

per

planful

push the envelope

pursuant to

putting lipstick on a pig

recontextualize

repurpose

rightsized

sacred cow

scalable

seamless integration

seismic shift (outside earthquake references)

smartsized

strategic alliance

strategic dynamism

synergize

synergy

think outside the box

throw it against the wall and see if it sticks

throw under the bus

turnkey

under the radar

utilization, utilize

value-added

verbage (the correct term is verbiage – in reference only to verbose phrasings)

where the rubber meets the road

win-win

Garner sums up his chapter very directly and simply:

Bizspeak may seem like a convenient shorthand, but it suggests to readers that you’re on autopilot, thoughtlessly using boilerplate phrases that they’ve heard over and over. Brief, readable documents, by contrast, show care and thought – and earn people’s attention. 

Have a great week.

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