Why is corporate language so awful?
18th May 2011‘Why is corporate language so awful? Why are companies so pompous when they address an audience? Why are they so afraid of straight speaking and an individual human voice. And why oh why when somebody takes over at the top – of a company or an organisation – do they always proclaim that they are “passionate” about the place, subject or issue in question? Who do they think they are fooling with this bolt on response, this reach-me-down language?’ – Peter Day, Presenter of Radio 4′s ‘In Business’ programme
Yes, I admit it: I have ’touched base’ and - I blush to recall it - ’talked the talk’. But, in mitigation, Flagship’s principal business copywriter has confined his linguistic excresancies to occasional verbal exchanges, usually at the end of a tiring day: he has never allowed examples of business jargon or extended ’corporate-speak’ to sully his limpid prose.
Did any of you hear the In Business ‘Watch your language’ show last week? It was a fascinating examination of corporate-speak and the Dark Angels – come on, surely you’ve all read John Milton’s Paradise Lost! – writing course, where business people are taught to write ‘more engagingly and imaginatively within the business environment’.
The digital revolution has reinforced the need for the business world to improve the quality of its written communication. Before the revolution, only a few of us might have received printed information on an organisation’s doings and aspirations, but company websites and related digital communication has opened up the world of business to everyone. And we’re not stupid: most of us can spot obfuscation and evasion from a mile off.
Corporate-speak is just a linguistic comfort blanket; it makes companies feel safe. But it also encourages cynicism; we read corporate-speak and we “see” hypocrisy and sharp practice. The British public has always been wary about business and tortuous, jargon-strewn corporate copy fuels this wariness. Most organisations don’t have anything to hide and most of them are trying to do ‘good things’. So, if they want us to love them, they should learn to speak our language.
Here are my Top 5 hanging offences:
- paradigm shift
- leverage
- granular
- downsizing
- blue sky thinking
What pushes your jargon envelope?!
