Last week we shared 6 Words Nonprofits Should Avoid in 2010 which lit a fire under our fellow language purists' behinds to contribute their own irksome, shudder-inspiring, jargon-filled terms and punctuation usages to include on the banned list.

Here are a couple of our favorite submissions:

  • "Can we please ban the exclamation point from all fundraising literature, too? No need to write like a happy Muppet." - Jude
  • "My two least favorite words that should be banned forever? Dovetail and springboard. I don't think I need to explain any further." - Allison

Read on to see all top 20 ideas (and some dissenters to last week's terms):

New Additions
  • "Stakeholder. Hate it. Hate, hate, hate it." - Sarah

  • "Program (but hard to find replacements)." - Stephen

  • "Add Resources to the list - Takes the humanitarian approach from the task." - Dr Himanshu and Sadhana Desai

  • "We have a collection of words that should be banished in our Jargon Finder on the Communications Network website." - Bruce

  • "Ban the use of "language" as a verb. Thanks!" - Carol

  • "Just went to a proposal-writing class in January with the top three grantmaking foundations in Cincinnati. Apparently, they don't want to read the words "pilot program" in our proposals. The suggestion was that if we were going to be bringing in a new program to our city based on one that is having success in another city, then just say that. Pilot Program makes them think, "We're going to give this thing a whirl and hope it works and we want you to fund it." (I went right back to my office and deleted that phrase from my current proposal!)" - Nancy

  • "How about an old one? "At" at the end of a sentence. Most sentences are just as short said correctly: "Where is it?" instead of "Where's it at?" And a newer one, actually a phrase? "Anytime soon". Whatever happened to the word "soon" by itself. It is almost always shorter and means the same thing." - Art

  • "Number One for me has been and continues to be UNIQUE. Every nonprofit describes themselves as such. Second is not a word but a phrase: "BEST KEPT SECRET." (I'm also tired of hearing: robust and transparent.) - Lynn

  • "Change agent!" - Ashley

  • "Empower." - Elisa

  • "At the CASE NAIS conference in NYC last week, we were told to forget about wonderful. I agree. It is not all that wonderful any more." - Hud

  • "How about the misuse of the word "express," such as 'his/her express consent.' Did they really provide their consent that quickly? Or, was it stated or presented in some form? In that case it would be 'his/her expressed consent.'" - Joseph

  • "Thanks for inviting readers to add to your excellent list. Here are two: Humbug on the word synergy. Phony, trendy, overused. Prioritize: ugly." - Suzanne

  • "The word AWESOME - especially for those under 30. It is used at the beginning, middle, end and everywhere else. It means nothing anymore." - Ganka

  • "I had a professor that insisted we not use the word community in his class. At first it was difficult and I thought it was a horrible rule, but by the end of the semester I cringed when I heard other people use the word. The rationale behind it is that community is just a general term when in actuality someone usually means: neighborhood, a specific city or even a specific street. Another word is resources. The same rationale applies to this word as to community. When people say resources they usually mean: money, time, staff, volunteers, etc." - Megan

 

Feedback on "6 Words..." Article

  • "Sorry, but I completely disagree. I've been involved with web development since the early 1990's (and a native speaker of English well before that). "Web site" is a descriptive term consisting of a noun with a preceding adjective and is a perfectly acceptable way of describing the item in question. To me (and many, if not most) in the professional web development industry, "website" is a cutesy, amateur, "late to the party" way of referring to a web site. While some generic two word phrases have "lost their space" and become acceptable over the years (e.g. sunglasses, wristwatch), I think many retain their original structure. This morning, for example, I did not use a "coffeemaker" or fill my "coffeecup". I won't be checking my "tirepressure" later or going to the "gasstation". I won't eat any "fastfood" or wear my "runningshoes". And, for whatever it's worth, I think "email" looks stupid, too. The original term, of course, is "electronic mail" which was quickly abbreviated by geeks like me to "e-mail" (or "E-Mail" or "E-mail"). Sure, everyone knows what it means if you leave out the hyphen, but are we going to start dropping apostrophes as well for the sake of brevity? I don't think so!" - Scott

  • "I was intrigued by your "6 Words for Nonprofits to Avoid in 2010" article and, for the most part, agree with your conclusions. That said, I have to take issue with your inclusion of the verb "impact." While Chicago does recommend caution in using "recently transformed words" in formal prose (section 5.31), I humbly submit that dictionaries have included "impact" as a transitive verb at least since 1996...meaning it's hardly a recent transformation. At this point, I think we should feel free to use impact as a verb (with no accompanying sense of awkwardness or shame). Thanks for the good tips!" - Lisa

Thanks to all of our Tips Weekly subscribers who contributed their thoughts and feedback! We love to hear from you.