Forums >Off the Beaten Path>Overused phrases
"Mrs Boyle, it's a girl"
That's better than, "We're not sure if it's human".
The process is the goal.
Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call Destiny.
Pursuant to your message board response I would agree insofar as I myself often see writing prepared by dumbass recent college graduates who think a letter to a client would be better if it sounded as pompous as possible.
I know it's a cliche to snort coffee onto your keyboard, but even so, sometimes it happens!
Throw in "leveraging synergies", a sprinkling of sports analogies, put the whole thing in the passive voice and you have about 80% of the business "writing" that passes across my desk on a daily basis.
"Transparency."
Nah. That got replaced by another overused word, "powerpoint". And used not just as a name of a product, but also as a verb.
(ok, for the record, I know what you meant by 'transparency' in its current overused sense. Interestingly, many times when folks say they wish for 'transparency' of a process or group, they kinda really mean the opposite)
Jazz hands!
I do think that 'definately' and 'wierd' are overused. They come up all the time.
Oh but it could of been worse.
That literally hurt to type! LOL.
Also: irregardless. Utilize.
In the corporate world, there is widespread overuse of the word "utilize", when a nice, simple "use" would work just as well.
I got all excited about linguistic irritations and posted before I saw this.
I've got a fever...
It's overused by absolutely everyone who says it, because IT"S WRONG! If you can care less, then your level of care has not yet bottomed out.
I, on the other hand, couldn't possibly care less. My level of care is at zero - a complete absence of care. I couldn't give a rat's ass about those who say it wrong.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
I saw the thread title and thought immediately..."at the end of the day" -- Perfesser, kudos to you!
This is the sort of carp I hear all day in academia:
"Achieving sustainability is only possible via transformative collaborative governance."
(sneaking back out of OTBP)
"could care less" It's overused by absolutely everyone who says it, because IT"S WRONG! If you can care less, then your level of care has not yet bottomed out. I, on the other hand, couldn't possibly care less. My level of care is at zero - a complete absence of care. I couldn't give a rat's ass about those who say it wrong.
yeah, this one gets gussied up with profanity too. As in "I could give a rat's ass" vs "I couldn't give a rat's ass". Well? Which is it?
Now, giving a shit is a little different. "I don't give a shit". You'd think that if you didn't like or care for something, you WOULD literally (heh) *give* someone a shit. This is the mirror view of the George Carlin joke about "taking a shit". (joke: Who takes a shit? Wouldn't you want to *leave* a shit?)
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San Francisco - 7/29/12
Warrior Dash Ohio II - 8/26/12
Chicago - 10/7/12
Gah...I just came here to post this after I just received an email with this in it...you (and Squeaky) beat me to it!
Use. Say it with me...USE.
Prince of Fatness
I, on the other hand, couldn't possibly care less.
But I'm pretty sure you give a shit.
Not at it at all.
When people say "It's my personal opinion/belief" ... You were going to give an impersonal opinion?
And a coworker says this: "I have to be honest with you" or "I have to tell you honestly" ... What, were you considering lying to me?
Both things drives me nuts.
Aagh ... here's an example I just read: "Personally, I wonder how my participation ..."
How bout: "I wonder..."
If it's you who are doing the wondering, isn't it implied that it's personal?
DWARP Marathon Madness Mob
I ran the big internal training group for the Borg for awhile. It had two names while I was there: Microsoft Internal Technical Education (abbrev MSTE because MITE was weird) and then Microsoft Training and Education (still MSTE).
I had to fight off... and fight off HARD... a rename of my group to "Work Smart".
GAH. That's like naming your team the Minnesota Wild. It isn't a name.
I got punched out of that job about six months later, but they never did change the name to Work Smart.
(and yes, "work smarter, not harder" is a fine attitude, blah blah blah. But sometimes you have to do both and it ain't always cool for a training group to point out to a bunch of professionals that they are not smart.)
Beware, batbear...
2014 Goal -- Run 5X per week, pain-free (relatively) by end of summer.