How to Avoid Gobbledygook in Your Writing

January 30, 2010 by Rita Marshall 

Photo by Joshua Hoffman

Confusing language has always been a pet peeve of mine. When I write, I picture people drinking in the information as if they were having a cool glass of water — the info is enjoyable, goes down easy and satisfies their needs.

Gobbledygook is the sludge in that glass of water, but unless you’re very disciplined in your materials, it can happen.

What kind of gobbledygook have you read, or even worse, inflicted on others?

- Buzzwords? (”leverage”, “value-added”)

- Cliches? (”110 percent”, “high performance”)

- The “professional” clunky phrases that businesses can’t seem to give up? (”pleased to”,  “in terms of”)

Dow Jones and marketing strategist David Meerman Scott compiled a list of the Top 25 Gobbledygook words and phrases used in North American press releases in 2008. (Are they optimizing the value-added metrics to leverage their synergy before they are pleased to announce the 2009 list?)

Scott has come up with the Gobbledygook Grader, which lets you cut and paste your copy for the Grader to analyze. The results will give you a score out of 100, along with a list of the gobbledygook the Grader found in your materials.  It won’t re-write the material, but it’s a good start to pouring your customers a new glass of water.