100 Banned Words

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Oops, missed this event in my ‘Days That Change The World’ diary, but apparently it was National Plain English Day yesterday, 11 December 2007. To mark theoccasion, the Local Government Association (LGA) published a list of100 words that public bodies should not use if they want to communicateeffectively with local people.

Local government leaders say that unless councils talk to residentsin a language that they can understand, then the work they do becomesinaccessible and reduces the chances of people getting involved intheir local issues. The list can be found here, but is replicated below. For anyone remotely familiar with ‘Govspeak’, this is a timely intervention by the Plain English lobby. It’s just a pity that something so obvious has to be published at all! (NB. Not quite sure why ‘welcome’ is on the list??)

The LGA’s top 100 ‘banned words’

ambassador
agencies
beacon
best practice
bottom-up
CAAs
can do culture
capacity
capacity building
cascading
cautiously welcome
champion
citizen empowerment
community engagement
conditionality
consensual
contestability
core message
core value
coterminosity
coterminous
cross-cutting
customer
democratic mandate/legitimacy
distorts spending priorities
early win
empowerment
engagement
engaging users
enhance
evidence base
external challenge
facilitate
fast-track
flexibilities and freedoms
framework
fulcrum
good practice
governance
guidelines
holistic
holistic governance
improvement levers
incentivising
income/funding streams
initiative
joined up
joint working
LAAs
level playing field
localities
meaningful consultation/dialogue
MAAs
menu of options
multi-agency
multidisciplinary
outcomes
output
participatory
partnerships
pathfinder
peer challenge
performance network
place shaping
predictors of beaconicity
preventative services
priority
process driven
quick hit
quick win
resource allocation
revenue streams
risk based
scaled-back
scoping
seedbed
service users
shared priority
signpost
single point of contact
slippage
social contracts
stakeholder
step change
strategic/overarching
streamlined
subsidiary
sustainable
sustainable communities
symposium
synergies
tested for soundness
third sector
top-down
transformational
transparency
value-added
vision
visionary
welcome

About Post Author

Stephen Dale

I’m a life-long learner with an insatiable curiosity about life. I love travel, good food, and good company. I’m happy to share what I know with others….even the interesting stuff! My outlook on life is pretty well captured in this quote from a book about the legend of King Arthur: “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” ― T.H. White, The Once and Future King So much to learn, so little time!

steve.dale@gmail.com

http://stephendale.uk