Nothing beats rambling when it comes to hiking through the countryside on a sunny day. But when it comes to your marketing communications, it’s important to be direct.
Avoid at all costs
Here’s a checklist of common circumlocutionary phrases to avoid:
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Instead of |
Try |
|
As yet |
Yet |
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Due to the fact that |
Because |
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By virtue of the fact that |
Because |
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In all probability |
Probably |
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In the majority of cases |
Usually |
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In close proximity to |
Near |
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In excess of |
More |
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In isolation |
Alone |
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In many cases |
Often |
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In order to |
To |
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In the absence of |
Without |
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In the event that |
If |
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In the near future |
Soon |
|
Make a recommendation that |
Recommend that |
|
Of the opinion that |
Believe |
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Prior to |
Before |
|
Until such time as |
Until |
|
With reference to
|
About |
Get to the point
With only seconds to grab someone’s attention, it’s vital to be direct in communications. If it’s not immediately clear that a piece of direct mail is relevant to us, we’ll bin it. If an advert doesn’t hit us between the eyes, we’ll turn our attention elsewhere. And if a speaker gives you the urge to shout “Get on with it!”, it’s likely they are committing the sin of ‘circumlocution’ – making their point in a rambling, roundabout way rather than getting straight to the point.
Such people typically use unnecessarily long words, often incorrectly or inappropriately, in convoluted, unwieldy sentences. To be blunt, they’re rambling. This frustrating trait is sometimes a deliberate ploy to appear intellectual or authoritative but can also be inadvertent when we struggle to find the precise word we want.
Notorious example
It probably won’t surprise you to know that politicians are notorious culprits and the late US President George Bush Senior was famous for it. Here’s a notorious example from a speech in which he defends his accomplishments in office:
“I see no media mention of it but we entered in – you asked what time it is and I’m telling you how to build a watch here – but we had Boris Yeltsin in here the other day and I think of my times campaigning in Iowa years ago and how there was a – I single out Iowa, it’s kind of an international state in a sense and has a great interest in all these things – and we had Yeltsin standing here in the Rose Garden and we entered into a deal to eliminate the biggest and most threatening ballistic missiles. . . and it was almost, ‘Ho hum, what have you done for me recently?’”
The list above is is by no means exhaustive so if you have any personal favourites, please share them! And if you’d like some help making your marketing communications more direct, just get in touch.
