{"id":13543,"date":"2008-11-18T13:53:53","date_gmt":"2008-11-18T20:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/11\/18\/phrases-to-avoid.html"},"modified":"2008-11-18T13:53:53","modified_gmt":"2008-11-18T20:53:53","slug":"phrases_to_avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/18\/phrases_to_avoid.html","title":{"rendered":"Phrases to avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"

The folks at Oxford have gathered together a “Top Ten” of phrases to avoid in your writing because they are so “irritating.”<\/a> <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. At the end of the day<\/li>\n
  2. Fairly unique<\/li>\n
  3. I personally<\/li>\n
  4. At this moment in time<\/li>\n
  5. With all due respect<\/li>\n
  6. Absolutely<\/li>\n
  7. It’s a nightmare<\/li>\n
  8. Shouldn’t of<\/li>\n
  9. 24\/7<\/li>\n
  10. It’s not rocket science<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Many more are added in the comments — mostly business lingo and the sort of thing that Dilbert <\/em>pokes fun at.<\/p>\n

    And BBC Magazine collected a “Top Twenty” of most hated clich\u00e9s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Basically<\/li>\n
    2. To be fair<\/li>\n
    3. To be honest<\/li>\n
    4. Going forward<\/li>\n
    5. The fact of the matter is<\/li>\n
    6. Let’s face it<\/li>\n
    7. touch base<\/li>\n
    8. 110%<\/li>\n
    9. In the pipeline<\/li>\n
    10. The reason being<\/li>\n
    11. You know …<\/li>\n
    12. I’m not being funny but …<\/li>\n
    13. By the end of play today<\/li>\n
    14. Singing from the same hymn sheet<\/li>\n
    15. Can’t get my head around it<\/li>\n
    16. A raft of proposals<\/li>\n
    17. Roll out<\/li>\n
    18. Walk the talk<\/li>\n
    19. Lessons will be learned<\/li>\n
    20. Actually<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      To be fair, there are a few there that only crop up among the Brits … but all of them things that, to be honest, we could all use with using a little less. Now to see, at the end of the day, if I can walk the talk … <\/small><\/p>\n

      (via LifeHacker<\/a>, wherein are a few entertaining comments, too)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The folks at Oxford have gathered together a “Top Ten” of phrases to avoid in your writing because they are so “irritating.”  At the end of the day Fairly unique…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8615,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/09\/27\/words_mean_thin.html","url_meta":{"origin":13543,"position":0},"title":"Words mean things","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Sep-05 12:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A fun BBC article about some interesting foreign phrases that don't make it into the guide books or language classes. One of my favorites: the Japanese katahara itai, which means...","rel":"","context":"In "Writing and Language"","block_context":{"text":"Writing and Language","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/writing-and-language"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135680,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/15\/budget-words-dare-not-speak-names.html","url_meta":{"origin":13543,"position":1},"title":"The Budget Words That Dare Not Speak Their Names","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Dec-17 11:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Officials at the Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) have been informed that certain terms must not, never, ever be used in their budget proposals. \u201cvulnerable\u201d \u201centitlement\u201d \u201cdiversity\u201d \u201ctransgender\u201d \u201cfetus\u201d \u201cevidence-based\u201d \u201cscience-based\u201d Budget item proposals that mention those terms in them are having them sent back for correction. It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cdc.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":44378,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/14\/our-ever-more-colorful-english-language.html","url_meta":{"origin":13543,"position":2},"title":"Our ever-more-colorful English language","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Aug-14 6:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm familiar with most of these (except for maybe adorbs), though I'm fairly surprised that spit take is considered a new entry.\u00a0\ufeff Embedded Link ICYMI: Oxford Dictionaries adds \u201cmansplain\u201d and \u201cdouchebaggery\u201d \"ICYMI,\" \"YOLO\" and \"FML\" are just a few of the new abbreviations to be included in the online edition\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2778,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/09\/23\/mission_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":13543,"position":3},"title":"Mission","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Sep-02 11:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's the Monday Mission....","rel":"","context":"In "Personal Q&A"","block_context":{"text":"Personal Q&A","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/personal-qa"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":873,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/07\/by_the_way_than.html","url_meta":{"origin":13543,"position":4},"title":"By the way … thanks","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 7-Nov-01 2:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"I mentioned before my being \"published.\" In other words, having achieved some success and recognition in my job. Some thanks are due (with preliminary thanks to speakeasy for pointing it...","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38824,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/27\/slang-from-the-1920s.html","url_meta":{"origin":13543,"position":5},"title":"Slang from the 1920s","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 27-Sep-13 4:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure we should \"start using these again,\" but they should certainly be sprinkled into period writing (with moderation). And there are a few (\"going to iron my shoe laces\") that would liven up modern conversations. 59 Quick Slang Phrases From The 1920s We Should Start Using Again 37.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}