Get the gunk out: Scour those sentences clean

Do your clients face a barrage of bafflement? Do your colleagues visualize your synergistic solutions?

(That wasn’t very funny, was it?) All I’m asking is this: Do folks understand your writing? Your proposals? Your emails? Your web content? Your white papers?

I’m sure many of you are planning to attend the upcoming MIMA seminar: Too Much Information? Surviving Data Overload. The enticing event description asks: How do you filter to find truly useful information, fast? A companion question might be this: How do you create truly useful information, fast?

Your clients need clarity. Your colleagues deserve comprehension. Here are some fun tools to help you swiftly eschew obfuscation:

Web Economy Bullshit Generator
My Larsen colleague Gordon McIntyre-Lee recently forwarded this. (Hope you don’t recognize your writing here.)

Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide
Not new, but always fresh.

Fight the Bull
Surely you’ve visited this perennial favorite. The partner website to the book above. Download free Bullfighter software. (Unless you’re a Mac user. Sigh.)

Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary, Business Category
Just plain fun. You can read about customerizing your products, prevealing your redesigned site, and insourcing your greenification.

Coffee mugs for daily inspiration
My favorite: “Shift my paradigm before I’ve had my morning coffee and I’ll core your competencies.”

Have additional resources? Please share.

Here’s a closing quote from Lincoln that should help keep your writing as honest as Abe himself: “He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.”

He’s not describing you, is he?

This entry was posted by Gwyneth Dwyer on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Copywriting, Interactive Marketing.
Comments Feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Bob McClain Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

Thanks Gyneth!

I realize that we all (myself included) get a good laugh out of hearing business people speak this way. However, when I write solid marketing copy for my website clients and they mark it up with corp-speak, I want to strangle someone.

Worse yet is when a client (often a CEO) writes what he or she thinks is great copy and I try to clean up the copy and give it some semblance of proper English and organized structure, they’re insulted that I’d change it.

I’d love to hear how others deal with clients who believe this is what people want to read on a website.

Get the gunk out: Scour those sentences clean

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