In their book, Words Can Change Your Brain, Dr. Positive Language Alternatives for Pandemic CommunicationsĮvery successful communicator knows that, of course, but science is showing us that word choice matters even more than we may have thought. But since she recognizes that not everyone feels the same way, she has shifted to saying, “Together, we will get through this.” She does believe that we’re in this together. Gina admits that she is guilty of that one herself. Many consumers also share a distain for companies that say “we’re all in this together” in their marketing and other communications.
Another word for unnecessary verbiage how to#
After discussing how to be an amazingly effective leader, he noted that he doesn’t “call these times ‘challenging,’ because that creates a vision that has some negativity built in.” Instead, Jacobs thinks “in terms of ‘unchartered waters.’” He believes that phrase helps us shift quickly into opportunity mode and encourages us to find clarity and spur action. Ken Jacobs, ACC, CPC, principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching was a guest on the podcast On Record PR. We didn’t see this phrase on the list, but Gina would add “Steven King-like” as an effective adjective phrase to describe the past few months. But these days and events really are unprecedented, so what’s a communicator to do? To help find other word choices, MarketingProfs published 30 Creative Alternatives to Unprecedented. The dislike of “unprecedented times” is widespread.
We also tossed out an informal survey on social media for examples of words and phrases that most of us are tired of hearing. So we reached out to members of the Legal Marketing Association and the Public Relations Society of America Counselors Academy to solicit input on language choices for communications today. Still, deliberately choosing positive language to communicate during a pandemic can take energy and awareness. The same situation, event or idea can be perceived differently by your audience depending upon the way the message is conveyed words and phrases can convey positivity or negativity, and sometimes all it takes is a different vocabulary choice to achieve a different tone. Some of that weariness and strain is starting to show in the language that people and companies are using.Īs communicators, though, we know that meaning is conveyed not just in what you say, but in how you say it.
For many, these past few months feel more like a decade. It is hard to believe that we have been living through the coronavirus pandemic since the early days of 2020.