Part 2 - Dishonesty

Business jargon is often used to hide something, whether it’s an outright lie or a little misdirection. The easiest way to spot this is to ask whether the information being offered by the cliché was needed. This is one of my go-to communication rules: if you’re feeling the need to offer descriptions no one has asked for, you’re probably not being honest. To quote a response to a denial in NBC’s The Good Place, “Okay, that’s really specific, and that makes me think you definitely did do that.” Or to quote Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” If you think “I should say X so I don’t sound like Y,” examine why you think your statement will sound that way to begin with. Then change your words to be more precise, or else don’t say anything at all.

Business clichés range from annoying to nonsensical to downright offensive. We’ve discussed them several times in the past, but today we’re looking at the ones you submitted—things that drive you crazy that you wish you’d never hear again. After putting the call out to friends, colleagues, and loved ones, we’re breaking down (in three parts) 24 annoying business clichés to get rid of in 2024.

Legal dramas are full of hot-headed lawyers overflowing with righteous indignation, ready to steamroll injustice by the force of their convictions. The courtroom scenes play out with biting repartee and shouts of “objection!” until at last the verdict is revealed, and the “good guys” walk away with their hard-earned, well-deserved victory. Opposing counsel glares as our heroic lawyer marches triumphantly to a waiting crowd of excited reporters and shares the good news.

Email has become the primary method of business communication—72% of people prefer email as their main source of business communication. But are we truly communicating? Sixty-four percent of businesspeople report having either sent or received an email that resulted in unintended anger or confusion. Research shows it’s because we’re not communicating effectively: Email senders overestimate their clarity and persuasiveness and email receivers only determine tone correctly 56% of the time.

To tighten each sentence, search for redundant words where the meaning could be clearly expressed with a single word. Most writers know to eliminate doublets and triplets, but overlook other redundancies in:

• word pairs or groups where the meaning of a word implies or includes its modifier
• word pairs or groups where the specific word implies the general category
• throw-away phrases that describe the writer’s intentions, give directions to the reader, or describe the structure of the text

It's hard to keep your mind on your task. The New York Times recently reported that brain fog is becoming an increasingly serious issue for the American workforce. The blahs that come from staring at your computer screen can be chased away by injecting some fun into your process. Enter gamification: adding elements of the gaming experience to a boring or unpleasant task to encourage you to complete it.

It’s common writing advice: Avoid redundancies. Redundant writing dilutes our message, kills subtlety, and wastes space and time. The words you waste with redundant language could be better used for examples to support your ideas or details that drive your point home and make it memorable. But redundancies are hard to spot without thinking deeply about every word in every sentence.

Everyone remembers their high school English teachers admonishing them against using the dreaded passive voice. According to composition class lore, using passive voice was the chief writing sin—and avoiding it was the key to strengthening writing. If true, then two questions remain:

1. What is passive voice, anyway? (Don’t worry: Even the most pedantic folks can get it wrong!)
2. How do we re-write sentences to avoid passive voice? (What good is pointing out a writing ill without offering a writing cure?)

In this blog post, we’ll give you a refresher on passive voice, show you how to fix it, and explain the four times when passive voice is acceptable in your writing.

Learning any language is hard, and English is no exception. Professor Stephen Horowitz has lived and worked abroad, and brings the lessons he learned from his time teaching in Japan to his instruction of Legal English. For him, clear communication with English as a Second Language (ESL) students is a matter of teaching what they need to know, while eliminating cultural jargon from his own speech. His nuanced view of plain language shed a light on how important it is to tailor communication for your target audience.

What is your role and how is it connected to clear communication?

I’m a Professor of Legal English at Georgetown Law School. I help international masters of laws (LLM) students improve their ability to comprehend and communicate in a US legal environment.

The decision to write in plain language is usually a simple matter, but is it always the best choice? Professor Daniel Edelson of Seton Hall University School of Law is a proponent of plain English, but he cautions that it may be more difficult for professionals who have learned English as a second language to understand. He shares his tips for communicating clearly with non-native English speakers in this interview for International Plain Language Day. 

What is your role and how is it connected to clear communication?

I teach legal writing and academic skills to J.D. and LL.M. students at Seton Hall University School of Law. In addition, I teach legal English and US law online to students around the world. I am responsible for teaching students to communicate in a way that will meet the expectations of the US legal profession.