14 Business Jargon Phrases People Love To Hate

When humans aggregate into groups, we tend to develop new lexicons specific to our group context. Wizards complain about “muggles,” high schoolers aspire to “squad goals”—and occasionally a mid-level manager stares fervently into your eyes and tells you it’s time to “shift the paradigm.”

In recent years business jargon has somehow evolved into a tangled mess of annoying, pretentious, tired clichés that are more effective at obscuring than clarifying meaning.

If you haven’t guessed already, this post is for all you noble crusaders against jargon (a.k.a. “haters”) who have had enough of “moving the needle,” “idea showers,” and “putting your ducks in row.” Whether you’re a jargon-hater or you consider it a necessary (if annoying) part of office life, take a moment during your “bio break” to enjoy our list of the worst workspeak phrases we love to hate.

via GIPHY

1Low-Hanging Fruit

Are you skipping blithely through an orchard, plucking apples for your grandmother’s pie? No? We didn’t think so. This ridiculous phrase is all about going for the quick fix and the easy win in order to get immediate results. So go ahead and put all the hard stuff on the “back burner”—there’s zero chance that could come back to bite you, right?

2Leverage

Mind-numbingly overused, and a favorite of managers attempting to “climb the ladder.”

“Leveraging our goodwill with millennials will help us increase sales.”

Please, quit deluding yourself. Incessantly using “leverage” as a verb does not increase our estimation of your intelligence.

3Open the Kimono

One of the stranger artifacts of office lingo, “open the kimono” means to reveal information or secrets, such as the inner workings of a company or the details of a project. If being low-key racist and sexist doesn’t turn you off, this phrase is also exceptionally creepy.

4Giving 110%

A hyperbolic phrase synonymous with “going above and beyond.” Translation: “We’d like you to work fourteen-hour days for the next two weeks because of an arbitrary decision the CEO made.” Unless you’re a professional athlete or Little League coach, this phrase should not be in your vocabulary.

5Learnings

One of the most heinous buzzwords to crawl out of the office petri dish.

“On this next slide I’ll share my main learnings from the conference.”

Please, don’t ever share your “learnings” with us, just tell us what you learned. #MakeLearningAVerbAgain

6Out of Pocket

A term with dubious etymology meaning “I won’t be available.”

“I’ll be out of pocket this week. You can reach out to my assistant with any urgent requests.”

Okay, enough with the abysmal out-of-office messages. For those of you who would like to make a positive impression, here are ten out of office messages you’ll want to copy.

7Drink the Kool-Aid

Meaning to unquestioningly buy into something, such as a company’s “mission.” This common idiom originated from the mass suicide-massacre of 1978 when over 900 members of the Jonestown commune were forced to drink poisoned Flavor Aid by their crazed leader. So, maybe you should stop casually referencing horrific tragedies during your board meetings.

8Bio Break

An annoying and unnecessary euphemism for taking a bathroom break during a meeting. Seriously, all you need to do is announce a ten-minute break. You can spare us the details.

9Blue Sky Thinking

Thinking “outside the box” wasn’t enough. Your new imperative is to think in a way that is so exceptionally creative that you are unbound by the constraints of convention, common sense, or even reality. It’s all blue sky up there, baby!

10Tiger Team

A group of specialists assembled to tackle a particular problem.

“The Tiger Team is working to get the pension problem under control.”

Stop kidding yourself. Unless you’re an elite government hacker (the origin of the term) or you’re wearing tights and shouting “Thundercats, Hooo!” you are not in a Tiger Team.

11Idea Shower or Thought Shower

A brainstorm, but apparently with no brains required. Please keep your “thought showers” to yourself, thank you very much.

12Moving the Goalposts

Changing an expectation or parameter of an ongoing project, making the project more difficult to complete.

“If our client keeps moving the goalposts, we won’t be able to deliver their report on time!”

This is also a great way to cheat at games in your backyard, when you’re a child.

“Mom! Benny moved the goalposts again! It’s not fair!”

13Drill Down

To investigate something in detail. Synonymous with the equally insufferable “let’s unpack that” and “peeling the onion.”

14Gain Traction

An infuriatingly overused buzzword meaning “to gain popularity.”

“Our new SeeFood app has failed to gain traction, we’ve only had twelve downloads.”

Who knows, maybe you would gain more traction if you didn’t use such terrible business jargon all the time.

It’s your turn to weigh in! Circle back with the business jargon you dislike the most.

via GIPHY

How to Use Assure vs. Ensure vs. Insure

• To assure someone is to remove someone’s doubts.
• To ensure something is to make sure it happens—to guarantee it.
• To insure something or someone is to cover it with an insurance policy.

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Some sources note that people use assure, ensure, and insure interchangeably. All three verbs have something to do with “making sure” and are therefore similar, but each of them has a distinct meaning that makes it better suited for some uses than the other two. So they might not be an interchangeable trio so much as they are simply commonly confused words.

What Does Assure Mean?

Assure is something you would do to a person or an animal. These beings can have doubts or insecurities you can remove by assuring them, by giving them assurance:

I assure you, we will get to the play on time.

Tom locked the door, assuring Tim that their dog wouldn’t be able to wander out during the night.

In the United Kingdom and other countries of the Commonwealth, the word assurance can also refer to a particular type of insurance:

I’m thinking about taking out a life assurance policy.

What Does Ensure Mean?

When you ensure something, you’re making sure it is going to happen:

I need to study more to ensure I get a passing grade.

He scored thirty-five points last night, ensuring that his team will have a place in the finals.

What Does Insure Mean?

To insure something or someone is to cover it with an insurance policy, a kind of agreement that states that if something happens to someone or something that’s insured, the insurance company will provide compensation:

I don’t want to insure my car, but the law says I have to.

The insurance company said they won’t insure our house against floods.

Examples

Sportswear manufacturer BLK’s receivers have moved to assure the company’s customers it will be “business as usual” amid uncertainty among professional sporting outfits.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Beyond the numbers, California’s electric vehicles policies are leading the way by ensuring that low-income communities benefit from zero tailpipe emissions.

The Sacramento Bee

This means drivers, now typically paying around £50 a year to the Treasury when they insure their car, will see it rise to above £60.

The Guardian

Apart or A Part? Learn Their Meanings and Their Correct Use

A part and apart are often confused, especially by non-native speakers of English. Apart is mostly used as an adverb, denoting a separation between two or more things. A part (two words) means “a fraction of a whole,” or in theatre, “an actor’s role.” Apart from is a frequently used preposition.

Although the two expressions are identical in spelling but for a space, they have two different origins. Apart came to English from the Latin words ad, meaning “to,” and pars, meaning “a side.” Part, on the other hand, is derived from partem, the Latin word meaning “a piece, division, or share.” Isn’t it amazing how a word that is all about separation came to be so similar to a phrase that has to do with being integral to a unified whole?

Here’s a tip: The difference between apart and a part is that apart implies a separation between things (they are away from one another), and a part denotes that a thing is a share of another, bigger thing (there’s togetherness going on).

When to Use “Apart”

Use apart adverbially to show how two things are separated physically, figuratively, or in time. Carefully avoid using a part when this is your intended meaning.

My parents had my sister and me two years a part.

My parents had my sister and me two years apart.

Michelle and her husband don’t like to be a part for more than an hour or two.

Michelle and her husband don’t like to be apart for more than an hour or two.

My sister and I used to live close to one another, but now we live miles a part.

My sister and I used to live close to one another, but now we live miles apart.

It can also be used to mean “to render in parts or pieces.”

The manager meant to bring his staff closer together with the “trust fall” exercise, but instead he tore them apart.

I sewed the hem too short on this dress, so I’m going to take it apart.

Apart from can be used as a preposition meaning “besides” or “except for.”

Apart from all the work I did keeping the rental house clean, it was a very enjoyable holiday.

Apart can also be used as an adjective in the sense of separate or isolated.

My taste in books and Samantha’s are worlds apart.

When to Use “A Part”

A part is two words: a is an article and part is a noun synonymous with piece. A part is frequently seen in the company of the preposition of.

Our neighbor Lucy has always felt like a part of our family.

May I have a part of your steak?

After a year or so, Mary began to feel like a part of her community.

Keep in mind that the article a might not be essential to your sentence. These three sentences, for example, are identical in meaning to the three above, and are equally correct.

Our neighbor Lucy has always felt like part of our family.

May I have part of your steak?

After a year or so, Mary began to feel like part of her community.

Of course, part can also refer to a piece of something in the sense of component.

I’d like to fix my bike, but I have to buy a part for it.

Last, a part can refer to an actor’s role in a play, musical, or film.

Did you audition for a part in the school play?

Tips to Remember “A Part” and “Apart”

Apart has to do with being or rendering separate.

A part is something that is a piece of something else that is considered whole or together.

10 Words Brits Use That Americans No Longer Do

A quick example of the bleeding obvious: people speak differently in the UK and the US. If you’re an American fan of British TV shows—the originals, not the American remakes—you’re probably very aware that once in a while, the characters will utter a word that you won’t hear on the streets of your hometown.

But you may be surprised to know that some of the words we consider distinctly British today were once fairly common in the United States. Read on:

1 Tetchy, adjective Someone who is tetchy is someone with a bad temper:

You can’t even talk with him these days; he’s just too tetchy.

2 Amongst, preposition While amongst is less favored than among in British English, it’s rarely seen at all in American English.

There’s a grammar pedant amongst us, and I intend to find out who he is.

3 Marvelous, adjective Sure, you can use amazing instead, but marvelous sounds so much more . . . marvelous:

We had a marvelous time during that holiday retreat.

4 Fortnight, noun Something that happens once every fortnight is something that happens every two weeks:

We try to get together for a family meal once a fortnight.

5 Cheers, exclamation In British English, cheers isn’t something you’d say when it’s time to have a drink. It’s a casual way to say “thank you”:

Cheers Thom, I really needed that paper today.

6 Rubbish, noun, adjective You know this one, it has the same meaning as garbage. Plus, rubbish can be used as an adjective when you want to say that something is really bad:

I bought a new keyboard today, but it’s rubbish so I’ll give it to my brother.

7 Blimey, exclamation If you ever get tired of saying “wow,” you might make an effort to bring blimey back:

Blimey, that escalated quickly!

8 Hoover, noun A hoover is a device that uses suction to clean surfaces—a vacuum cleaner:

The hoover broke because it’s not supposed to be used to clean up spilled water.

9 Bespoke, adjective Before things were custom-made, they were bespoke, especially if they were suits:

A bespoke suit is expensive, but it’s a good investment if you want to look professional.

10 Chap, noun Chap is an informal way of referring to a male person, sort of like “dude”:

See that chap wearing a yellow bow-tie? That’s my biology professor.

What are your favorite British words?

Theater and Theatre—How Is It Spelled?

Whether you use the spelling theatre or theater will depend on where you hail from. In American English, the spelling is theater; in Britain and the rest of the English-speaking world, theatre is used. The spelling you choose—theater vs. theatre—should align with your audience’s preference.

Why Are There Different Spellings: “Theatre” vs. “Theater”?

Theater has roots in both Greek and Latin and came to English through the Old French word theatre. Theatre and similar words ending in -re were sometimes spelled with the -er until the 1660s, when the French-borrowed -re spellings came to be preferred; before that, both spellings were considered equally correct. Chaucer, for example, spelled it theatre. Shakespeare, on the other hand, spelled it theater. Today, theatre is considered the correct spelling in Britain and in most English-speaking countries other than the United States.

In the eighteenth century, following the American Revolutionary War, Noah Webster sought to create a standard literacy curriculum specifically for his fledgling nation. Not only did he succeed at replacing British textbooks with new American versions, but he also published his own meticulously researched dictionary, notable for its reformed spellings. The separation of British and American spellings, and in some ways, punctuation, had begun.

Webster was the man who took the u out of colour and turned musick into music. He preferred spellings that were simpler and closely modeled pronunciation, which was why theatre became theater and similar words, like centre, became center. Most of the newly respelled -er words caught on in the United States, especially in the last century or so.

When to Use “Theatre”

Choose the spelling theatre whenever your audience will likely be predominantly using British English or its local variant. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, for example, all use the spelling theatre. American English and British English do have remarkable differences, don’t they?

There are notable exceptions, however. Take the New York theater scene. We refer to the Broadway Theater District, yet many of the most frequented Broadway theaters actually have theatre spelled out on their marquees:

Broadway Theatre Winter Garden Theatre Majestic Theatre Richard Rogers Theatre Palace Theatre

And of course, there is Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., which is famous for being the site of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

Across the pond, things are much simpler.

Do you have theatre tickets for any of this season’s West End shows?

When to Use “Theater”

If your audience speaks American English, use theater. Theater is also the most predominant spelling on the internet, statistically speaking, if that is your determining factor.

Did you know that, in addition to his Wild West exploits, Buffalo Bill had a theater career?

Manuel is interested in trying his luck in the musical theater scene.

Cinema or Movie Theater?

Brits and Americans don’t just spell differently; some of the vernacular is different as well. Brits talk about going to the cinema or catching a film. An older British expression for going to see a film is going to the pictures. Americans speak of the movies as a slang abbreviation for motion pictures. While in British English, a building called a theatre is for only plays and musicals, American English also has movie theaters. Canadians have a blended approach to the place where they view blockbusters: they call them (and spell them) movie theatres.

Do you want to go to the cinema tonight, or do you want to stay in? (British English)

We plan to catch a film with our neighbors on Saturday. (British English)

I remember the days when we went to the pictures every Friday evening. (British English)

Please don’t make me go to the movie theater on Main Street. They put too much butter on their popcorn. (American English)

She refused to go to the movies with my cousin Albert. (American English)

Whether you spell it theater or theatre, or you refer to films, movies, or the cinema, it is unlikely that your readers will be confused by whichever word you choose.

7 Helpful Tips on How to Write A Memorable Personal Essay

Everyone has a story to tell and a message to share. The challenge lies in getting that story and message out of your head and into print in a way that resonates with your audience.

Starting somewhere in the late 2000s, a certain type of personal essay experienced a popularity boom. These essays were ultra-personal and confessional in nature, often in a TMI sort of way. Their headlines were clickable, not to mention shareable, for their shock value alone.

Although the confessional shock essay’s star seems to be fading, the personal essay itself is still standing strong. Essay collections by late greats like James Baldwin (The First Next Time) and David Foster Wallace (Consider the Lobster) still top Amazon’s Best Sellers in essays. Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) launched a career with her darkly funny and self-effacing essays about her health and mental illness challenges (Let’s Pretend This Never Happened). Celebrities like Mindy Kaling (Why Not Me?) and Tina Fey (Bossypants) blended personal essays into memoir-esque collections that became best sellers. We head for the nearest bookseller when essay titans like David Sedaris or Anne Lamott have a new release.

We’re thirsty for real stories and musings from people who are able to share their foibles, lessons, and truths in a way we can relate to. Here are seven tips to help you craft a personal essay that will connect with readers.

1 Understand what a personal essay is.

Ask three different experts what a personal essay is and you’ll likely get three different answers. Are they structured? Must they address a certain type of subject? Here’s a definition we like:

A personal essay is a short work of autobiographical nonfiction characterized by a sense of intimacy and a conversational manner. Also called a personal statement.

A type of creative nonfiction, the personal essay is ‘all over the map,’ according to Annie Dillard. ‘There’s nothing you can’t do with it. No subject matter is forbidden, no structure is prescribed. You get to make up your own form every time.’

—Richard Nordquist for ThoughtCo.

Personal essays relate the author’s intimate thoughts and experiences to universal truths. They aren’t simply a retelling of events, though—that falls more in the realm of memoir or autobiography. They conclude with the author having learned, changed, or grown in some way and often present some truth or insight that challenges the reader to draw their own conclusions.

2 Find a compelling topic.

The best essay topics are often deeply relatable. Although the story itself is unique to the author’s experience, there’s some universal truth that speaks to us from just below the surface. Topics like facing a fear, falling in love, overcoming an obstacle, discovering something new, or making a difficult choice tackle feelings and events that happen in everyone’s life.

Here’s a tip: Need a little help? Here’s a list of personal essay topics that might spark an idea.

3 Start with a strong hook.

As with any type of writing, it’s essential to draw the reader in from the very first paragraph, or even the first sentence. Here are a few examples.

Aside from Peter, who supposedly guards the gates of heaven and is a pivotal figure in any number of jokes, the only saint who’s ever remotely interested me is Francis of Assisi, who was friends with the animals.

—David Sedaris, “Untamed”

When I was young, my family didn’t go on outings to the circus or trips to Disneyland. We couldn’t afford them. Instead, we stayed in our small rural West Texas town, and my parents took us to cemeteries.

—Jenny Lawson, “Amelia and Me”

I underwent, during the summer that I became fourteen, a prolonged religious crisis.

—James Baldwin, “Letter from a Region in My Mind”

Alone, we are doomed. By the same token, we’ve learned that people are impossible, even the ones we love most—especially the ones we love most.

—Anne Lamott, “Blessings: After Catastrophe, A Community Unites”

Your hook and opening paragraph should establish the topic of your essay (or at least allude to it) and set the scene and tone.

4 Create an outline.

All it takes to understand the importance of an outline is listening to someone who struggled to tell a personal story. Often, the story will seem to have no real point. The switchbacks where the teller says “But wait, I have to tell you about this part, first!” are maddening and disruptive. An outline will help you organize your thoughts before committing them to text.

Consider your opening hook and the statement it makes, then map out the sequence of events or main points that support it. Just like a good fictional story, your essay should have rising action. Raise the stakes with each paragraph until you reach a climax or turning point. Plan to add a conclusion that will evoke an emotional response in your reader.

5 Narrow your focus.

Don’t try to write to a general topic. Your essay may well be about sexism, but you need to illustrate it through the lens of a defining incident that’s deeply personal to you. What did your experiences teach you about sexism? What does it mean to you as an individual?

6 Show, don’t tell.

Close your eyes. Think of the scene you’re about to write down. What were you experiencing with your five senses? How did you feel?

Your challenge is to evoke those senses and feelings without flatly stating them. Don’t say “I felt cold.” Say “I exhaled and my breath turned to vapor that hung in the air. I shivered and pulled the blanket tight around my shoulders in a vain attempt to trap my body heat.” Your description should help the reader experience the cold with you. Stephen King describes it as making the reader “prickle with recognition.”

7 Craft a thought-provoking conclusion.

Your essay should end with your own reflection and analysis. What did you learn? How have the events and thoughts you described changed your life or your understanding of life? It’s not enough to say “And that’s what happened.” You have to describe how whatever happened shaped you.

Just as a good lead hooks readers and draws them along for the ride, a good conclusion releases them from your essay’s thrall with a frisson of pleasure, agreement, passion or some other sense of completion. Circling back to your lead in your conclusion is one way to give readers that full-circle sense. Try to restate your thesis in a way that reflects the journey the essay has taken.

—Tom Bentley for Writer’s Digest

There is so much outside the false cloister of private experience; and when you write, you do the work of connecting that terrible privacy to everything beyond it.

—Leslie Jamison for Publishers Weekly

5 Essays Every Student Needs to Know How to Write

An essay is a brief composition on a specific topic. The most common essay types are analytical, argumentative, critical, expository, and narrative.

Students write essays. You knew that already. But do you know what kinds of essays students write? Here are the basics of how to write five different types of essays.

Analytical Essays

To analyze means to examine carefully or critically. You might analyze a piece of literature, an event, or even a work of art. To do so, you may compare the similarities or contrast the differences of two things. For this reason, analytical essays are sometimes called compare-and-contrast essays.

How To Write an Analytical Essay

Introduce your subject in the first paragraph and raise the issue that you will discuss with a thesis statement. Present your information, including your personal response to the subject. Conclude by explaining the relationship between the information you presented and the subject.

Argumentative Essays

To argue is to attempt to prove a theory or opinion. In an argumentative essay, you will defend your opinion against other viewpoints with the aim of showing why it is correct. (In a persuasive essay, you present your opinion with the aim of influencing others to adopt it.)

How to Write an Argumentative Essay

State your opinion or position on an issue. Present supporting evidence and research. Concentrate on defending your claim and refuting opposing viewpoints. Consider your audience as you write. What arguments would be strongest for them?

Critical Essays

To critique is to evaluate someone’s work. You might identify the strengths and weaknesses of a book, a film, or a work of art. Or you might discuss the methods the person used to create the work.

How to Write a Critical Essay

Begin by providing a short summary of the work. Give a brief analysis of what it means, including what the author was trying to accomplish. Then, comment about how successful the work was in attaining that objective.

Expository Essays

Expository is an adjective related to the verb expound. To expound means to explain or to set forth in detail. In this type of essay, you provide information about an idea or a theme. You can also explain your personal response to a work in this type of writing, but you are not trying to convince the reader to agree with that opinion.

How to Write an Expository Essay

Make a thesis statement introducing your subject. Explain the main points, supporting them with facts and reasoning. Give examples, but be concise. As with any type of essay, make sure you choose information that will appeal to your audience. Conclude with a short overview.

Narrative Essays

A narrative essay tells a short story. For example, you might relate a personal experience. You might also write a report on a book. The purpose of the essays may be to inform, entertain, or reflect. According to the Glendale Community College website, “narratives provide human interest, spark our curiosity, and draw us close to the storyteller.”

How to Write a Narrative Essay

Though it is not a requirement, writers often write narrative essays in the first person. Select an event (from your own life or from a book) that is worthy of interest. Include all the elements of a good story: characters, plot, setting, conflict, and resolution. Use vivid language that engages the reader.

Students write essays. Now you know what kinds of essays they write: analytical, argumentative, critical, expository, and narrative. Would you like to see some examples? You can find sample papers on the websites of many university writing departments.