John Rentoul's Banned List

Publicising his new book The Banned List: A Manifesto Against Jargon and Cliché, John Rentoul, political commentator who writes for The Independent, has included some of the political clichés he can't stand in an article in today's edition. They include 'transactional behaviour', as in 'not dependent on any transactional behaviour to maintain his income', a phrase that was used by Liam Fox about his friend and 'adviser' Adam Werrity before he resigned as Defence Secretary last week.

 

Rentoul highlights waffle used by David Cameron, such as 'in the driving seat' and 'sticking with the status quo is not an option'. Ed Miliband does not escape; he is taken to task for his 'hard-wiring fairness into the economy'.

 

Rentoul's proposed banned list of clichés includes 'going forward', 'any time soon' and 'a heads-up'. One of the dangers of writing about how annoying you find clichés and jargon in other people's writing is that, unfortunately, you tend to use them yourself. I can't decide whether Rentoul deliberately included such clichés in his writing as 'the damage has been done', 'the in-crowd', 'a mere statement of the obvious', 'a step ahead' and 'self-appointed guardians', or whether they just slipped through.

 

John Rentoul's article is here.

Comments

[John]

I suspect that we have all been captured and held hostage by the media with respect to our use of jargon and clichés. It fits their sound-bite modus operandi. We’ve been assaulted by so much poor English in the press and on television and radio, that use thereof is now second nature to us all.

I work in a completely jargon and acronym-driven environment which only accentuates the agony. We have to write that way or no one will understand us. My personal favourite is what I call “acronym squared”, an acronym within an acronym; something of the form “ABCD” where “B” is itself an acronym for, say, “XYZ”. Beautiful!

[Marc Leavitt]

As my mother often told me, cliches are cliches because they are true. To expand a bit: cliches encapsulate and highlight the folk wisdom of the race. Looking down one's nose at a cliche smacks of intellectual elitism. If you speak or write only in cliches, than shame on you, but cliches are not only comfortable, they also get the message across; they communicate. Isn't that what language is for?

[Virtual Linguist]

You both make good points - even though they're different. Speaking literally and concisely without the cliches would probably be boring!

[John]

I likewise think that you and Marc make good points. I was referring more to professional written style than to verbal usage.

I plead guilty to letting them slip out when I speak, even when speaking "formally". Where used properly, they can grab an audience's attention.

[Virtual Linguist]

I'm the same John. Some clichés are ok, and some occasions are fine for clichés, too. It's impossible to tar them all with the same brush -- and that's probably a cliché, too!

[Techczech]

Of course, let's not forget that complaining about cliches is in itself one of the biggest cliches there is.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks, Techczech. Good point.

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Dr Barrasso may be "insulted" by Mr Obama's use of a recess appointment, but the procedure is hardly unusual.