Many business communicators lard up their speeches with jargon and weasel words. The result? They sound like bureaucratic stooges.
Your goal when dealing with the media is to communicate a message in the clearest and simplest manner possible, while at the same time building your reputation as a strong and forceful communicator. Strong and forceful are relative terms, so if you use all of the same buzzwords that everyone else does, you will always seem mediocre. Many businesspeople acquire their bad rhetorical habits at some point during their second year of business school or after having attended their third annual board of directors meeting.
Here are some of the worst offenders:
“Going forward . . .” What an utterly useless phrase. Use “in the future” instead. You wouldn’t tell your teenage son, “Going forward, please keep your room straight,” so why use it in a speech or interview? The sole purpose for using a phrase like “going forward” in a speech is to create the impression that you are saying something fancier than you actually are. So please, going forward, never use the phrase “going forward.”
“If you will.” People tack this phrase onto the back of a sentence as if to say, “Look at this most original and brilliant insight I have just come up with. It will require you to change your whole conception of the universe, if you will be so kind as to indulge me in this mind- thought experiment.” Pretentious drivel! Imagine a trap door, if you will, that will spring open and devour you if you ever use the phrase “if you will” in a public speech.
“As it were.” See above.
There is nothing wrong with using specialized language to convey complex concepts to sophisticated audiences, but that is not what many business communicators do. Instead, they use complex phrases to communicate simple concepts because they are under the delusion that this makes them sound more professional. The more simply and conversationally you can speak, regardless of the topic’s complexity, the more likely your audiences will understand, respect and appreciate you and your message.
TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide
For more information on media and presentation training please visit http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com,
