Teachers in the TES online staffroom are adding their own submissions to the “banned list” - Independent journalist John Rentoul’s list of 100 cliches he would like to see wiped from usage. Staff meetings seem to be a rich source of words teachers would like to ban. Lyoung84 says: ”‘Close of play’ and ‘cascading information’ ... are typically the mark of Filofax carrying upstarts.”
Maizie’s meetings are also full of them. Her list includes “impact” used as a verb instead of “affect”, “utilise” instead of “use”, “rich” as in “data-rich” and “road map” instead of “plan”.
Grunwald, meanwhile, says: “I have never enjoyed ‘waking up and smelling the coffee’.”
Poemelectronique wonders if instructions should be taken literally: “I was sent an Excel document today and asked to ‘populate’ it with various bits of information. I think that means ‘add stuff’.”
But it’s not just school management at the receiving end of the war on cliches. Politicians and broadcasters also feel the wrath of this pedantic bunch. Seapink hates it when weather forecasters say “all the while”, while jonkers loathes “incentivise”. Let’s run that one up the flagpole and see how many people salute it.
www.tes.co.ukbannedlist.
