Readers: Is any place more of a breeding ground for bad vocabulary than the corporate world? If you are in that realm, be careful that you don’t cause miscommunication that could cost your business. Besides, your clients, and superiors, will respect you more if you use proper grammar and usage. Use of clichés’ might suggest to them that you’re not sharp enough to stand out. Be brave!

1. Let’s finalize this deal.

Who snuck in when we weren’t looking and invented the word “finalize”? It’s made its way into the vocabulary, so some dictionaries have accepted it. But it’s a bad word. We won’t use it.

2. Select the package that best meets your needs.

“Meets your needs?” Ugly.

3. I’m efforting that as we speak.

You could try efforting it, but “effort” is not a verb, and “efforting” isn’t a real word.

4.  It's a “win-win.” 

Brutal cliché.

5. This merger will bring a new synergy.

Do you even know what “synergy” means? It essentially means cooperating, with a positive outcome. If you don’t know that, probably your clients don’t either. Even if you did know that, and you’re sure your clients do, it’s still a cliché.

6. We need everyone to give 110 percent.

You’re very clever. Just say 100 percent, OK? We stick to math. There’s no 110 percent. 

7. What’s our branding plan?

What the heck is a “branding plan?”

8. Chairman of the board.

Just chairman. Or chairwoman!

9.  I’m circling back around to see if you might be interested.

You can do the hokeypokey. We still are not interested.1.

Watch this on video! https://youtu.be/-R3ooeAcsSI

Next time: More boardroom horror.

Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong" features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police:” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we properly can credit you. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com

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NOTE: Eliot and Lou Ann are available for speaking engagements, and can travel. Reach us through the comments section. Just think of all of your employees getting back to work on a Monday, their heads filled with all the ways we’ve shown them to be better communicators!