The Thin Line Between Buzzword & Cliche

Language changes. Words we’d never heard decades (or years!) ago are now part of our lexicon. It’s good when language evolves to keep up with technology, trends, and even our culture and society. But sometimes it goes too far.

As writers, we don’t have to adopt every slang or popular phrase we hear. This post, written by a fantastic blogger I stumbled upon (quite literally!)  the other day, hammers home the point in a witty way.

Sales and marketing types (including copywriters) are most often guilty of letting jargon infiltrate their writing. But all writers should be aware of the danger.

Why is it such a problem to use “trendy” words and phrases – buzzwords of the moment — in your writing?

1. It makes your writing sound dated. This isn’t that much of a problem in print publications, which don’t have a long shelf life, but if you are posting evergreen content on the Web – content you hope people will continue to read long after you’ve written it – you don’t want to use words that will be out of vogue in a few months.
2. Everybody else is using them. It’s a thin line between fashionable buzzword and cliché. Part of taking pride in the English language (and if you’re a writer, you should!) means finding the most original, creative, yet straightforward way to get your point across. If you choose a word everyone else is using, it’s not original or creative. What’s worse is that, after reading “be transparent” or “go green” for the umpteenth time, your audience tunes it out.
3. Many buzzwords are empty and meaningless. “Guru,” “stimulus package” (when not used to describe actual government stimulus funds) and last year’s “paradigm shift” come to mind. Over-use has rendered them practically meaningless, and they’re often used as vague descriptors in lieu of detailed facts. Replace with specific terms. Instead of describing someone as a “guru,” tell us his credentials. Don’t call every sale an “economic stimulus package.” Instead, tell us how much money we’ll save.
4. You’ll sound like a teenager. Relying on slang or trendy phrases too often makes you sound lazy. Phrases like the now-out-of-vogue, “That’s so [adjective],” (popularized by Chandler from Friends) come to mind, along with the super-sarcastic, “Really?” and the snarky “Not so much.” They’re fine in casual conversation, but really? Can’t you come up with a better way to show your disbelief in your writing?

One good reason to use a buzzword…

Changes in the English language aren’t all bad. They expand the tools in our toolbox, that is, the words we use to get our points across.

Indeed, if a popular buzzword is the perfect and most concise way to describe what you’re talking about, (for instance, a video that really has gone “viral”), well… just do it.

What do you think? Are you a language purist or are you quick to integrate new words and phrases in your writing? What buzzwords make you cringe?