Offglish

Offglish is a difficult-to-understand language found almost exclusively in workplaces.  It uses a lot of words to say very little.  It’s characterised by long, confused sentences, long, confused words and short, confused thinking. The antidote to Offglish is to think and plan what you want to say before you start writing.

Buzzwords

Buzzwords are used by writers trying to sound as though they know more than they do.  Usually multisyllabic (see what I mean?), they usually try to make a very simple concept sound much more important than it is.  Buzzwords are soluble in clear, simple, human language.

Clichés

Clichés are phrases and terms that are worn out by over-use. Readers’ eyes slide off them without taking them in. Avoid them like the plague.

Management speak

Management speak is a way of making unpleasant things sound OK.  Like ‘rightsizing’ instead of ‘redundancies’. Management Speakers also hope using complex words (often slightly wrong ones – like ‘methodology’ instead of ‘method’) for simple concepts will make them sound clever. The antidote to management speak is to use simple, understandable language.