• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Executive Writer

Executive Writer

Business Writing Training

  • About
  • Workshops
  • Government
  • Reviews
  • Blog
  • Contact

Eliminate Officialese

October 7, 2021 by gomarketing

Officialese refers to the jargon and convoluted phrases that, over time, become part of the vocabulary in every industry. The simple word “form” becomes a “requisite document or instrument of commerce.” Eliminate officialese. Here’s what Warren Buffet, Chairman of the Board, Berkshire Hathaway, has to say about jargon in his preface to A Plain English Handbook: How to create clear SEC disclosure documents: “For more than forty years, I have studied the documents that public companies file. Too often, I’ve been unable to decipher just what is being said or, worse yet, had to conclude that nothing was being said…. There are several possible explanations as to why I and others sometimes stumble over an accounting note or indenture description…. Perhaps the most common problem, however, is that a well-intentioned and informed writer simply fails to get the message across to an intelligent, interested reader. In that case, stilted jargon and complex constructions are usually the villain.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Footer

Information

  • About
  • Contact
  • Reviews

Training

  • Government
  • Workshops

Writing Tips

  • A Lawyer Makes an Airtight Case for Plain Writing
  • Writing Advice from Famous Authors
  • Scientific Writing Doesn’t Have to Sound, Well, Scientific
  • Kids Who Can’t Write Turn into Businesspeople Who Can’t Write

Let’s Talk

The Executive Writer
11833 Hidden Valley Road
Sandy, Utah 84092-5735

801-706-7558
info@executivewriter.com

The Executive Writer © 2023 · All Rights Reserved
SAM ID LM2LRB2MX9P8 • CAGE 3SPU0 • DUNS 028636947