Are you guilty or innocent of complicating your message and thereby making it less clear? Let’s find out.

Do you favor big words over small ones? If you say “utilize” instead of “use,” you’re guilty.

Have you created your own language by turning a noun into a verb? Really now, if you say “bulletize,” give yourself another guilty.

You’re guilty again if you craft sentences that rival those of Charles Dickens. Learn to self-edit (delete words and condense phrases) and to chop sentences into two or more thoughts.

Are you driven by your organization’s lexicon, throwing buzzwords and acronyms into every (or even a single) sentence? Guilty again. Save the jargon for emails to your boss. Instead, talk to your customers about what matters most to them in a way they (or even your own grandmother) can understand.

Post your worst sentences here and I’ll give a few of them a before-and-after makeover.

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This post was was inspired by two things …

• the negative experience of a colleague whose integrity was called into question as a result of a poorly written newsletter article; and
• a tweet from @ProBlogger who created 29 Tips, Tutorials and Resources for New Bloggers.

Following are my links and fast-read tips to improve both written and spoken communication. Please note that while I may reference “writing” or “interactive copy” in some of these tips, you can easily substitute “communication” (the word and the concept) for each.

Read on … I promise you’ll learn something new or at least be reminded of something important.

1. A friendly reminder about good communication
2. Know who you’re talking to. Ask yourself these questions: Who is my audience? What do they expect to hear? What do they need to hear? What kinds of words will they respond to?
3. Simple tip for audience insight
4. Get to the point. Say what you have to say clearly and concisely. If it helps, pretend you’re talking to a child or explaining something to your grandmother.
5. Common writing mistakes (almost) everyone makes
6. Stop communicating to impress. Ditch the name-dropping, jargon-popping speak that characterizes much of American conversation.
7. Lose the unnecessary words
8. Do not repeat yourself or go on and on and on by saying the same thing multiple ways. In other words, lose the redundancies (like this one!).
9. Find some new words
10. Pause. It gives the reader or listener time to process what you’re saying. Hint: Punctuation is your natural pause in the written word.
11. How to make your everyday email more effective
12. Choose your words carefully. “He stepped down as CEO” sounds like the person quit or was fired; whereas “He completed his three-year term” sounds like the person achieved something.
13. Such a post a this should be made more clear via editing
14. Get personal, when appropriate. Speak “to” people; not “at” them.
15. Why good writing is a lot like being in love
16. Think before you communicate. Write your copy, set it aside and go back to it before sending or posting. In conversation, simply pause before continuing.
17. Short and sweet
18. Clarify vs. defend what you write or speak.
19. How to write conversationally
20. Skew toward the positive. Negativity rarely prospers.
21. Become a storyteller
22. Avoid clichés, jargon and buzzwords.
23. How to replace blah, blah, blah language
24. Keep the “who, what, when, where, why and how” in mind. Always.
25. Stop sleepwalking through your copywriting
26. Listen, listen, listen. ’Nuff said.

Want more? Sign up for monthly tips, insights and shortcuts or ask about 1:1 coaching

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Each year, Lake Superior State University publishes its “Banished Words” list. Not surprisingly the words “green” and “maverick” made the cut for 2009, as did “staycation.” (Perhaps that one belongs on the dumbest-ever words list!)

But what tired, overused words should you banish this year?

Not sure?

• Read through your marcom materials and highlight the redundancies, then banish them for at least part of the year.
• Create a substitution list that has alternate words and phrases for the banished words.
• Ask an impartial observer to review your copy and identify words with banishment potential.
• Hire someone to refresh your copy.

Here are a few I’d like to see make everyone’s banished words list:

• workplace of choice
• outsourced
• bandwidth
• outside the box
• bulletize
• warm fuzzy
• paradigm shift
• emotional quotient
• at the end of the day
• core competencies

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Years ago when I first heard the word masstige, I could barely contain a small snicker over what I thought was a ridiculous, made-up word.

I’m so glad I kept my composure because though it is a made-up word per Merriam-Webster, it’s very much a part of the lexicon of cosmetic to car marketers.

Thanks to BuzzWhack you, too, can privately learn (and perhaps laugh) over today’s super-hot buzzwords.

Now if only I could get them to add my personal favorite buzzword … Jantastic!

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