Artisanal Aspirations
On the upswing in culinary circles, the word “artisan“ makes people think of small batches of food prepared with careful attention to detail. It evokes an aura of integrity, quality, and craftsmanship. Similar to the growth of farmers markets and the new demand for local foods, the rise of artisanal foods is rooted in distaste [...]
In Today’s Tedium
High school writing and college composition teachers invariably cringe whenever they read an essay that begins with “In today’s society….” Something about this stock phrase appeals to countless students. Perhaps they believe it makes them sound important, up to date, and authoritative. The following first lines are lifted from term papers found online (for sale [...]
Zap that Error
With all the sloppy writing found online and the weird, compressed language of Twitter and text messages, it’s easy to grouse about degraded writing standards in Internet culture. Nevertheless, an academic study has shown that online consumers still recognize well-written English and respond positively to it. To businesses, positive responses mean more customers and higher [...]
Germs for Sale
A devoted reader of The Awkward Adverb informed us that her neighborhood Walgreens is infamous for its unintentionally funny signs on display throughout the store. She sent us a batch of photos that include: Odd syntax and grammatical mistakes Nonsensical or head-scratching messages Incorrect or confusing math Although The Awkward Adverb got a good laugh [...]
Follow the Leader
When you read marketing materials, you find that many companies claim to be “leading providers” of something or other. This phrase spans all industries. Here’s a quick sampling gathered from the Internet: “MetLife is a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to millions of individual and institutional customers.” “Targus Group – Leading Provider [...]
Real Fakes
Pioneered by Amazon, product reviews have become an essential part of e-commerce, and sites dedicated solely to reviews have sprung up, from Yelp to Epinions to TripAdvisor. Not surprisingly, efforts to game online reviews have also emerged. Ordinary consumers with no conflicts of interest supposedly author reviews, but sometimes companies plant glowing fake reviews among [...]
Results-Oriented Problem Solvers
At the end of 2010, the business social networking site LinkedIn released the top “overused buzzwords” found in users’ profiles that year. For the U.S., they are: Extensive experience Innovative Results-oriented Proven track record Team player Fast-paced Problem solver Entrepreneurial Is there a problem with using these buzzwords? If everyone professes to be “innovative” and [...]
Misplaced Missiles
Lockheed Martin no doubt means its slogan, “We never forget who we’re working for,” to be reassuring. But here at The Awkward Adverb, we find it cryptic and disconcerting. As a manufacturer of fighter jets and missiles, Lockheed has sizable contracts with the U.S. military. So does it consider the Pentagon to be the principal [...]
Gotcha Journalism
A September post on the New York Times’ small business blog ran with this title: Eagle-eyed readers, however, noticed that the URL said, “Social Media Is Easier Than You Think.” Which is correct? “Social media are…,” or Social media is…?” There are two linguistic schools of thought on such matters. One would say that the [...]
Banishing the Buzz
Unsuck It, a new buzzword dictionary making some buzz on the Internet, claims to “unsuck” pretentious business jargon into normal English. The online lexicon contains some apt entries of inflated buzzwords that indeed need to have hot air sucked out. For example, a team player is translated as “helpful employee,” a go-forward plan is just [...]
