One of the biggest threats to PR and marketing is the rise of corporate speak. PR is guilty of some of this – after all, our job is to tell people about things in the hopes that they will get excited and write about them. But in both PR agencies and corporate boardrooms, the slow creep of imprecise language and milquetoast writing is alarming. 

Instead of saying we’ll use something we say we’ll “leverage it.” Instead of saying come talk to me, we say circle back. We use lots of qualifiers and boasts to try to generate enthusiasm that instead encourage readers to do something else. We try to inflate importance by using phrases and words like best in class, paradigm-shifting, groundbreaking, and innovative.

The end result is that companies end up looking just like their competitors, who are making the same linguistic mistakes. Instead of generating excitement, they induce boredom. When everything is a best-in-class cutting-edge technology that leverages the cloud for a computing revolution, where is there to go? And what does this even mean? While companies (and, sadly, some PR firms) think this writing will grab attention it makes them look the same at best and, at worst, like amateurs. 

Companies and PR agencies need to go back to basics. Learn to write well and clearly (we’ve shared tips on this before in our posts on press releases, storytelling, and simplicity). When you explain the technology, do it in a way that anyone can understand. At the very least, leave corporate speak like leverage on the cutting room floor. 

There are a number of excellent resources that can help one spot corporate speak and write better. Here are MGP’s recommendations. Reading any – or all – of these books will do much to assist your quest to write and speak clearly and confidently. 

Junk English 1 and 2: 

Ken Smith spotted the rise of corporate speak long before it became a pandemic and his insights are still valid. Junk English 1 and 2 are catalogs of linguistic excess that include padded writing (using words like basically, certainly, essentially, indeed, and more) and business jargon (“those who use it cavalierly turn verbs into nouns and nouns into adjectives, bandy about unpronounceable acronyms and technical terms and invent slang at a rate that would put a teenager to shame.”) Smith’s books are funny, compulsively readable and brief yet thorough accounts of how language is debased.

Writing Without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean: 

Josh Bernoff’s book starts with this: “The tide of bullshit is rising. Your email inbox is filled with irrelevant, poorly written crap. Your boss talks in jargon and cliches. The websites you read are impenetrable and incomprehensible.” 

It’s hard to disagree. 

Bernoff’s book doesn’t hide from self-interest or promotion. In the business world and PR, there is doubtless a temptation to parrot what other businesses are saying or to speak corporate language when your boss does. Ultimately, this does careers and businesses a great disservice. Clarity, precision, and economy have never been more needed. Those who spend time learning to think, write and speak well get ahead. Learn these skills, even if it’s just for self-interest. 

Business Writing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Supplement to Think First, Write Better:

Matthew Spence doesn’t spend much time on what is broken but rather on communicating well. This book’s strength is that it focuses on how good writing cannot exist without clear thinking. Work on one and you ultimately get better at both.

Interested in a PR agency that can tell your story without buzzwords or jargon and help you think clearly? Get in touch with us at hello@wearemgp.com 

One of the biggest threats to PR and marketing is the rise of corporate speak. PR is guilty of some of this – after all, our job is to tell people about things in the hopes that they will get excited and write about them. But in both PR agencies and corporate boardrooms, the slow creep of imprecise language and milquetoast writing is alarming. 

Instead of saying we’ll use something we say we’ll “leverage it.” Instead of saying come talk to me, we say circle back. We use lots of qualifiers and boasts to try to generate enthusiasm that instead encourage readers to do something else. We try to inflate importance by using phrases and words like best in class, paradigm-shifting, groundbreaking, and innovative.

The end result is that companies end up looking just like their competitors, who are making the same linguistic mistakes. Instead of generating excitement, they induce boredom. When everything is a best-in-class cutting-edge technology that leverages the cloud for a computing revolution, where is there to go? And what does this even mean? While companies (and, sadly, some PR firms) think this writing will grab attention it makes them look the same at best and, at worst, like amateurs. 

Companies and PR agencies need to go back to basics. Learn to write well and clearly (we’ve shared tips on this before in our posts on press releases, storytelling, and simplicity). When you explain the technology, do it in a way that anyone can understand. At the very least, leave corporate speak like leverage on the cutting room floor. 

There are a number of excellent resources that can help one spot corporate speak and write better. Here are MGP’s recommendations. Reading any – or all – of these books will do much to assist your quest to write and speak clearly and confidently. 

Junk English 1 and 2: 

Ken Smith spotted the rise of corporate speak long before it became a pandemic and his insights are still valid. Junk English 1 and 2 are catalogs of linguistic excess that include padded writing (using words like basically, certainly, essentially, indeed, and more) and business jargon (“those who use it cavalierly turn verbs into nouns and nouns into adjectives, bandy about unpronounceable acronyms and technical terms and invent slang at a rate that would put a teenager to shame.”) Smith’s books are funny, compulsively readable and brief yet thorough accounts of how language is debased.

Writing Without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean: 

Josh Bernoff’s book starts with this: “The tide of bullshit is rising. Your email inbox is filled with irrelevant, poorly written crap. Your boss talks in jargon and cliches. The websites you read are impenetrable and incomprehensible.” 

It’s hard to disagree. 

Bernoff’s book doesn’t hide from self-interest or promotion. In the business world and PR, there is doubtless a temptation to parrot what other businesses are saying or to speak corporate language when your boss does. Ultimately, this does careers and businesses a great disservice. Clarity, precision, and economy have never been more needed. Those who spend time learning to think, write and speak well get ahead. Learn these skills, even if it’s just for self-interest. 

Business Writing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Supplement to Think First, Write Better:

Matthew Spence doesn’t spend much time on what is broken but rather on communicating well. This book’s strength is that it focuses on how good writing cannot exist without clear thinking. Work on one and you ultimately get better at both.

Interested in a PR agency that can tell your story without buzzwords or jargon and help you think clearly? Get in touch with us at hello@wearemgp.com