(This article is reproduced with permission from The Plain English Campaign)
At the end of the day… we're fed up with clichés! So says The Plain English Campaign. Plain English supporters around the world have voted "At the end of the day" as the most irritating phrase in the language. Second place in the vote was shared by "At this moment in time" and the constant use of "like" as if it were a form of punctuation. "With all due respect" came fourth.
The Plain English Campaign (an independent pressure group launched on 26 July 1979) surveyed its 5000 supporters in more than 70 countries as part of the build-up to its 25th anniversary.
Spokesman John Lister said over-used phrases were a barrier to communication. "When readers or listeners come across these tired expressions, they start tuning out and completely miss the message – assuming there is one! Using these terms in daily business is about professional as wearing a novelty tie or having a wacky ringtone on your phone.
The following terms also received multiple nominations in the survey to find the most irritating phrases:
24/7
absolutely
address the issue
around (in place of "about")
awesome
ballpark figure
basically
basis ("on a weekly basis" in place of "weekly" and so on)
bear with me
between a rock and a hard place
blue sky (thinking)
boggles the mind
bottom line
crack troops
diamond geezer
epicentre (used incorrectly)
glass half full (or half empty)
going forward
I hear what you're saying..
in terms of…
it's not rocket science
literally
move the goal-posts
ongoing
prioritise
pushing the envelope
singing from the same hymn sheet
the fact of the matter is
thinking outside the box
to be honest/to be honest with you/to be perfectly honest
touch base
up to (in place of "about")
value-added (in general use)
In the weekly e-newsletter from The Plain English Campaign, they reported: The widespread coverage of the survey (including an appearance on the front page of The Times and national television pieces on BBC1, BBC News 24 and Sky News) suggests we have struck a nerve, opened a can of worms, heard what people are saying, scored a home run, and any other cliché you wish to use!
John Lister took part in interviews for radio stations in Ireland, Canada, the United States, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Given the subject, it's probably not surprising that only one presenter ended an interview with the phrase we hear so often in these situations: "more power to your elbow".
We received so many suggestions since publishing the list that we are thinking of holding a similar survey each year to see which of today's fresh buzzwords have become tomorrow's tired clichés.
We also received several e-mails that simply read "Get a life." We're not sure if these were intended to be general comments about us or nominations for clichés!
Footnote from Shirley: If you haven't already discovered The Plain English Campaign's website, you don't know what you're missing. Check it out now at www.plainenglish.co.uk.
