War on Cliches
The Plain English Campaign has identified "At the end of the day" as the most annoying phrase in the English language. "At this moment in time" took second place; "like," as a form of punctuation, was third, and fourth was "with all due respect".
The campaign apparently offers annual awards for "good use" of the language - though that would be as subjective as the "bad use". They define "plain english" as 'language that the intended audience can understand and act upon from a single reading' - or 'hearing' presumably.
It seems wishful thinking to simply publish a list and hope that people pay attention - particularly while the media engage in atrocities against the language constantly. Current software tools for word processing are also significant factors - the "intelligence" built into Word for instance can result in very compromised usage.
Multiple nominations for annoying language use were also recieved for:
- 24/7;
- absolutely;
- address the issue;
- around;
- awesome;
- ballpark figure;
- basically;
- basis;
- bear with me;
- between a rock and a hard place;
- bottom line;
- crack troops;
- glass half full (or half empty);
- I hear what you're saying;
- in terms of;
- it's not rocket science;
- literally;
- move the goal-posts;
- ongoing;
- prioritize;
- pushing the envelope;
- singing from the same hymn sheet;
- the fact of the matter is;
- thinking outside the box;
- to be honest/to be honest with you/to be perfectly honest;
- touch base;
- value-added
To which I feel compelled to add
anything containing "war on....". Other suggestions are welcome.
Item posted by AutoEditor at 10:48 am ::
