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Subject:Q: Overused words and phrases From:Rowena Hart <rhart -at- INTRINSYC -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 9 Oct 1998 12:32:06 -0700
Hi again,
I'm just full of questions today! I'm curious whether any of you have
short-lists of overused terms, words and phrases in the software
industry that could be classified as the "new jargon".
By "overused," I mean words that have been co-opted by marketing
and business leaders, or applied so indiscriminately that it's difficult
for people to distinguish their specific meaning. Some words or
phrases that come to mind are: open architecture, system integration,
dynamic, framework, development, etc.
The Microsoft Manual of Style suggests that if you see terms like
this in another company's documentation (like theirs) that it's
probably not jargon, but I don't know if I buy that reasoning...
I'm asking this question because I'm reviewing a number of in-house
documents in the next three weeks, and I'm already starting to see a
pattern of company-specific jargon. I understand the need to talk
at the level of our peers in the industry, but I don't see any reason
why we have to do so using stale language.
If you can share your "do not use these words" lists with me, I'd
appreciate it.
