Blog
Plethora? Myriad? Enough, already
Plethora and Myriad: These two sound like a couple of heroines from a Greek tragedy. I’m sure they have their place in the richness of poetry and literature. But in business they get in the way of clear writing and slow down your readers’ journey through your website. People who don’t have the Latin, or the Greek, or whose first language is not English, will stumble on these words and wonder what on earth you are talking about.
Health and safety – how creative campaigns can backfire
Last week, in the Good Copy Bad Copy blog, David Pollack took the construction company Balfour Beatty to task for trumpeting their 100% safety record, or, as BB called it, ZERO HARM, on a large billboard at one of their sites.
You say it best, when you say nothing at all
Often I wonder if we need plain English, or just plain common sense.
Do editors need to be industry experts?
Sit me in the Mastermind chair and I’d be hard pushed to choose a specialist subject. Eric Clapton, maybe? Summer Olympics? As a lifelong fan of Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog, I’d probably settle for the works of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin.
Kick woolly adjectives out of health and safety regulations
‘When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when close together. They give strength when they are wide apart.’
A-Z of bossy words
Adverse
Against
Banned
Compel
Compliance
Compulsory
Consequence
Deny
Don't
Duty
Enforce
Enforcement
Execution
Fine
Forbidden
Got to
Have to
Impose
In accordance with
Insist
Mandatory
Must
Necessary
Negative
No
Not
Nothing
Obligatory
Oblige
Ought
Penalise
Ask me nicely before you tell me off
I’m starting a campaign against bossy, ‘waggyfinger’ language. I want people in organisations to step out of their corporate and public-sector-speak and talk to me. Show me how to do things correctly and on time, so that I never have to see the words ‘compliance’, ‘penalty’, ‘enforcement’ or ‘severe consequences’.
Will a ‘stone’s throw’ pass the new advertising standards?
I edited some copy about vacant office space in Manchester. It claimed that the offices were ‘just a stone’s throw from the Lowry and the new Media City’.
Acronym or abbreviation - what's the difference?
I went to a talk about water use. The young engineer was careful to explain all the technical abbreviations he used, such as WWTP (waste water treatment plant) SLA (service level agreement) and PPM (parts per million).
But he didn’t call them abbreviations. Or even acronyms, which they aren’t. He called them anagrams. More than once. Which the audience found rather amusing, but of course we were far too polite to point out his error out loud.
Emphasise your strong points - if it's 'above all' - put it at the top!
Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of the princess who, even through 20 mattresses, could still feel a hard, dry pea. As a plain English ace, I’m much the same with words. In 20 pages of dense text I’ll often find a golden nugget lurking around somewhere at the bottom of, say, page 7. It’ll be something key that hasn’t appeared before, and really needs to be further up the document if the reader is going to see it and act on it.
About me
I'm Ali Turnbull, web editor and content strategist, fearlessly poking around the back of old websites and intranets to help clear out the rubbish and keep what's good. Call me now if you're ready to refresh the words on your website but don't know where to start.
