Buzz Kill
Part Two on Corporate America's Abuse of the English Language
I've written before on this topic in my "Good Business Writing: An Oxymoron?" post, with some extra commentary from Gary Baldwin of HealthLeaders magazine (now with Health Data Management.) Today my colleague Brian Bogie weighs in on the topic, with some insights from Eric Wicklund of Healthcare IT News...
Companies have news they need to communicate to their constituents. This news is made up of new customer wins, product announcements, partnerships, recent hires, etc. The most common method of distributing that news is the humble press release. Tried and true, a well written press release can get the word out quickly and effectively. Unfortunately, a great barrier stands in the way of effective communication in a press release: buzzwords.
It’s not the buzzwords fault, really. In a culture of hype, the buzzword is royalty. It shows you are “with it,” you are “now,” and you are “happening.” Ok, really bad examples, but you get the idea. With business book titles leading the way for a real-time, paradigm-changing, seamless business consciousness, we all end up believing the hype. And we are all guilty of using them. Besides, isn’t the news about our client’s fantastic new technology, or the greatest partnership in the history of mankind that you just signed with Microsoft worthy of a buzzword or two? For that answer, I went to Eric Wicklud, managing editor of Healthcare IT News.
Eric was kind enough to give some thought to the overuse of buzzwords. A master craftsman when it comes to understanding and reporting on news of the healthcare technology industry, Wicklund has simple advice: just say no.
Illustration: Katy Hanlon
“Long-winded words are tossed about as often as acronyms in the healthcare field these days, making it difficult to conduct a normal conversation or read through an article without consulting some kind of reference guide,” says Wicklund.
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The importance of effective communication in a press can be summed up in one word–coverage. Unless the press release communicates the news value of the announcement in a concise, easily-understood manner, it’s likely to be passed over. Eric sees on average 60 press releases cross his desk daily, and standing in the way of your deserving news receiving coverage are buzzwords. “Buzzwords don’t effectively communicate anything. Rather then bring luster to a release, they only bring confusion,” says Wicklund. Eric openly wonders if there’s a “Healthcare IT for Dummies” out there somewhere.
With that in mind, Wicklund provided Schwartz with his list of most overused buzzwords. An explanation in his own words follows. Trying to sneak a few past him may just relegate your release to the circular file.
Buzzwords
1. Solution – The use of the word “solution” has always bothered me. The word implies an answer to a vexing problem, and is used in marketing terms to refer to a company’s product. My question is, if the product doesn’t work, then it’s not a solution to anything.
2. Utilization - Bothers me. It’s a longer version of “use.”
3. Transparency - Sounds like something’s invisible.
4. Seamlessly - As in “seamlessly integrating.” If it’s being integrated, the whole process should be seamless, or free of wrinkles. If it isn’t, you need an iron. And a better metaphor.
5. Real-time - As opposed to fake time? Is there any other kind of time?
6. Efficiencies - Aren’t they apartments? How does one “improve operational efficiencies?” If they’re efficient, they don’t need improving – unless they can be made more efficient, which makes one wonder if they were efficient in the first place.
7. Innovative - Really? Who says? How do you prove it?
8. Advanced - As in “advanced technology.” If it isn’t advanced, is it primitive? In my opinion, everything we’re reading about nowadays in healthcare IT is pretty advanced.
9. Strategic Partnership – All partnerships are strategic. They’re not partnering just for the fun of it.
10. Intuitive - If it’s intuitive, why say it?
11. Paradigm - Actually, I like that word. I’ll never use it, because so few people know what it actually means, but it’s a cool word.
I suggest a new scale when weighing the communicative quality of the press release you are currently writing, the “Wicklund Scale.” It may not be a paradigm shifting, transparent, seamless, innovative release living with a few friends in efficiencies, but it may get covered.
Posted by Shawn Whalen on August 4, 2008 at 11:22 AM
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