Here are eight pointless words

I’ve been lucky enough to have forged (one may also say ‘stumbled through’) a career where I’ve used words to communicate with all sorts of people about all sorts of things.

During my career, I’ve:

* Tucked into my fair share of acronym soup

* Hacked my way through thickets of jargon-laden jungle

* Worshipped at the altar of KISS more than the most rabid Gene Simmons fan

Through my decade of journalism, content marketing, and now UX writing, I’ve learned a thing or two about producing clean copy that sub-editors love.

But more importantly though, I’ve learned a thing or two about producing words that people understand and appreciate (without consciously doing so).

To do that, I’ve identified words that are almost always pointless and just confuse people and replaced them with words everybody can get behind.

Here are eight I’ve identified, but there are plenty more.

Commence = Start

I’ve run into the word ‘commence’ a fair bit when writing about mining.

It’s mostly used by geologists-turned-CEOs to describe when a project will start – but when was the last time you used the word ‘commence’ in your daily life? If you’re a human being, probably never.

Instead, just go with ‘start’. It’s simple, and it gets the point across without the veneer of wank.

Provide = Show, Give, or Include

This is usually used in making a request of the user (or ‘audience’).

For example “please provide us with the requested documents”.

I’ve found that in most instances, ‘provide’ can sound a little bit formal if you’re trying to strike a conversational tone, and should only be used in legal documents.

Synonyms which work here include ‘show’, ‘give’ or ‘include’.

Disable = Turn Off

This tends to be a bit of a hang-up from early programming days where coders defined the language around computer programs.

But, there’s a reason a lot of industrial equipment has giant TURN ON/TURN OFF switches.

They want to leave nobody in doubt about what will happen if the user performs the required action.

Aside from being a touch able-ist, there’s no particular reason to use ‘disable’ when ‘turn off’ is sitting right there.

That = Take it out in most instances

 An early editor (looking at you, Noel Dyson) told me that in most instances, the word ‘that’ is basically filler used to fill the space to allow the brain enough time to form the rest of the sentence.

That’s why we say ‘that’ a lot in speech (and also umm, ahh, and hmm).

But there’s no requirement to do this when it comes to written language.

Try taking the word ‘that’ out of sentences you write. You’ll be surprised in how many cases the sentence still makes sense.

Complete = Finish

This sits in the same category of ‘commence’, in it’s just a little bit too formal if you’re trying to convey a simple message.

Unless you’re Jay from Inbetweeners, you probably don’t use the word ‘completed’ a heck of a lot.

Just use ‘finish’ and save everybody the hassle.

Purchase = Buy

When was the last time you went to the shops and said ‘I’d like to purchase this orange, please.’?

Probably never, because that would make you just a little bit stilted.

Instead, you can also always substitute ‘purchase’ with ‘buy’ for the sake of clarity.

I also considered putting ‘pay’ here, but ‘pay’ can have a negative connotation to it (‘I’ll make you pay!’ etc.), so consider using ‘buy’ instead.

Regarding = About

This one was born in the email chain of offices around the world, and refuses to die.

I’m a huge fan of using ‘Re:’ to get people’s attention in email, but in the real world 90 percent of people would use ‘about’ rather than ‘regarding’.

In my mind, ‘regarding’ should go the way of ‘forsooth’ in our lexicon in favour of ‘About’.

Not only is it one less syllable, it’s just a lot clearer and to-the-point.

Customise = Edit or Change

On last point, why use three syllables when you can use one or two?

A lot of people can trigger a feeling of freedom of choice by using the word ‘custom’, but ‘edit’ or ‘change’ is just way simpler.

It’s also more direct, and also clears up any arguments about the –izing of words, which is a nice bonus.

But, that’s just eight of the words I think are pointless. Which words do you think merely exist to confuse people? Let me know below.