Phil Roberts-Thomson makes this plea to the literary world:
I hope, in vain, that I will never again read “exact same“.
Not only is it a tautology, but it should be “exactly the same
as.” My wife came to the phrase in a poorly written contemporary
novel. In disgust, she threw the book across the room (in reality she
was pleased for the excuse).
Sonia Jaffe Robbins, professor of journalism, responded to my desperate plea that she inflict the Banned for Life list on her impressionable young newsies. Sonia’s reply:
I love your “banned” page. Yes, it goes to my students, immediately.
And here are my contributions, just off the top of my head (there are
many more deep in my memory bank, and I hope they stay there):“Approximately 375…” or any exact number. Yes,
I know the harried copy editor doesn’t want to write out that number
at the beginning of a sentence, but surely there are other ways to
recast.Anyone on trial who is “found innocent.” No jury
finds the accused innocent; the verdict is “not guilty.”
Yes, I know the fear of dropping the word “not” and publishing
“guilty” instead of “not guilty,” but in these
days of computerized type and layout, that isn’t likely to happen
anymore, is it?Investigators are always sifting through the rubble after
airplane crashes. Please have them do something else.“It’s a no-brainer.” It certainly is a no-brainer
to come up with this phrase. Maybe writers and editors could try using
their brains to say something else?And the person in the hospital who “fights for life.”
Martin Hillman bids death to redundant use of “different”:
“He spoke five different languages and had worked in four different countries.” How grateful he must have been: His
life would have been dull indeed, and semantically complex, if he
had spoken identical languages or visited countries which were identical.And then there are the ones like the steeply sloping ramp: a surreal steeply level ramp would have been much more fun. Or fast-moving traffic — it really makes one hanker for the fast-stationary sort.
William B. Eustis suggests there’s surely a better way to say:
“Drugs and alcohol.” — I know that this is a style
required by some organizations. It is clearly redundant and suggests
that alcohol is not a drug.“Substance abuse.” – What substance is being abused?
Walking on my lawn could be considered “SA.”“Self-titled.” (As in: “Joe Blow’s new self
– titled CDƒ”) What, the CD gave itself a name? Either use
the title or use the perfectly useful “eponymous” and make
’em look it up.A further note on “At this point in time.” – Not
only is this used for “now,” it has also become a bad synonym
for “then.”
Canadian David Isaac sends these along:
A brutal murder (rape, assault); isn’t all murder brutal? Rushed to hospital; as in the “the victim was rushed
to hospital.” Do tell. What do you think the paramedics did,
took a slow drive to hospital?Thrown his/her hat into the ring; where’s the ring? Who wears hats?
From D. Reed Watson:
Stop modifying the word “unique“! The word means
one of a kind. How, then, could something be more or most unique?
STOP IT!And I almost evacuate myself everytime I hear a reporter tell me
how many people were evacuated. Evacuate means to make vacant.
(or to empty). If a person is evacuated, it is generally done with
an enema. Please, let’s evacuate the buildings and leave the poor
people alone!And of course, the ever popular “back to you” at
the end of a live shot.
Mark Samuels sent along these complaints that made me wonder if perhaps
he had an impacted molar at the time:
The older I become, the more the daily diet of shallow and ill-educated talking heads that the broadcast media provides me tends to grind upon me, particularly when certain buzzwords are picked up, used over and over, and then bleed into print journalism. And we all agree, of course, that print journalism is the last bastion of literacy in the civilized
world.Some examples:
“CLEARLY, blah blah blah. . .” CLEARLY, this is
being overused and I want to throw up every time I hear some pretentious, egocentric politician/commentator/tv reporter use it.Or tune in to the overuse of AS WELL, when a simple ALSO
or TOO would do.Then there is the grating conversion of a noun or adjective to a verb:An IMPACT may impinge or strike (noun). And we may have IMPACTED teeth, an IMPACTED area where the state provides services but derives little tax revenue because of tax-exempt federal property, and we may even be IMPACTED by being wedged in or packed (all adjectives)
But Johnny’s inability to speak or write the Queen’s English was not IMPACTED by his refusal to do his lessons, although that refusal may have had an IMPACT upon his situation. IMPACT is never a verb, much less a past-tense transitive verb in the form of IMPACTED. Clearly, there are many other examples that have impacted our speech and reporting as well.
Steve Parker sends these observations:
For anyone in earthquake country, the inevitable description called-in to a radio news station right after a temblor:
“It was like a rolling motion” and (with apologies
to tornado country) “It sounded like a freight train”.For those who hate “state-of-the-art”…how about …
the various uses (and spellings) of “hi-tech,” “high-tech”
…etc.
Anyone who says “the wave of the future” is clearly “mired
in the past,” says retired English professor Helen H. Gordon, who
defines a composition teacher as one who, for the love of good writing,
reads more bad writing than she’d ever have to read in any other occupation.
The Professor submits these choice annoyances:
“the bottom line” “blow-by-blow description” “last but not least” “unsung hero” “couldn’t care less” (or erroneously, “could care
less”)“man’s best friend” “sacred cow” “whose ox is being gored” “man (or woman) who needs no introduction”
Sidharth Bhatia sends these fresh (stale?) from the Asian Subcontinent:
I chanced upon your excellent site and enjoyed all the cliches. In
India, we suffer from the hangovers of the archaic English left back
by our erstwhile colonial masters, the Brits. While they have moved
on, we stick to Ye Olde hackneyed English. And of course, our hacks
have also developed their own peculiar phrases. Some examples:The detenus flew the coop Ministers air-dashed to the capital (they never fly, always airdash) A favourite with ponderous edit writers: Needless to say (then don’t
say it)It ill behoves us Culprits nabbed (a very common headline)There are many more, but let me conclude with this story of the editorial
writer who was summoned by his boss and told to write 600 words on some
matter of grave importance. At about 5 p.m., when there was no sign
of the editorial, the Big man himself went to his junior’s cabin and
found him lying slumped on his typewriter (those were the days before
PCs), quite dead. On the sheet in the typewriter there was just one
word:“Notwithstanding… “