Banned! The words they don't want you to use Tuesday August 24, 2010
Have you gone wurfing recently? Indulged in a little nonversation? Ssh – the Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t want you to talk about it! These and many other words were discovered to have been rejected by the OED. The OED did however welcome a whole host of “new”words onto their pages last week. So while ‘vuvuzela’ and ‘climate change’ were deemed acceptable, ‘freegan’, ‘sprummer’ and ‘polkadodge’ were not. Obviously this is about usage, but is it also about what seems more serious and credible? A lot of the rejected words sound suspiciously like they belong in Douglas Adams’s very amusing The Meaning of Liff. From a copywriting point of view, the more words the better. Or rather, the better words the better. I can’t imagine a day when I write a business website or brochure using the words ‘espacular’ or ‘glocalization’. But you never know…
A Google perspective on word use
As pointed out in one of the online comments on the Guardian article quoted above, you can actually see the timeline of a word’s usage with Google Trends! Interesting stuff.
Most supportive message of the week Friday August 20, 2010
Confusing, out of place or just plain inappropriate. We’ve all seen copy that captures attention for the wrong reasons. So is this an eye catching health and safety hazard or a quirky message in keeping with its context? You decide.
A little more comprehension, a little more action Thursday August 19, 2010
The Office for Tax Simplification. The name might suggest a Monty Pythonesque organisation. But this is the new UK government body aimed at creating clarity where once there was confusion. There’s no doubt that government language pushes the boundaries of comprehensible copy. Or that jargon (or as I like to call it, robot-speak) has stood in the way of clarity for far too long. But it says a lot about the nature of our regulations that the Chancellor of the Exchequer declares it is his “dream” that “people might actually understand the tax laws which they were being asked to comply with”. Wouldn’t it be great if that was always the core aim of public information? Call me a copywriter with a dream of my own, but I hope that the new Office for Tax Simplification really does make understanding the facts on tax, er, simple.
Why Q&A equals TLC Tuesday August 17, 2010
The question mark. Is it the copywriter’s best friend? I’m not talking about the copy (that would be a serious case of over punctuation) but the process of working up to writing the copy. This is the Q&A that helps turn information into something more, well, warm and cuddly. I usually ask a lot of questions when I’m discussing a new project with a client. The right questions gain the right information. That’s why I like this story by Dave Trott. It highlights the big question we need to ask to make the leap between what is seen and what is noticed.
Most misunderstood sign of the week Friday August 13, 2010
How big is the potential gap between intended message and message received? About as long as piece of string – or about ten dogs, according to this sign and the funny story behind it. Ok, obscured copy does create confusion, but minor misunderstandings like this sometimes make life just a little bit more interesting.
