Me Talk Pretty One Day…
~David Sedaris
Ever mindful of the power a teacher wields to positively affect the growth in thinking and learning of the students in his classroom every day, I was struck this weekend by an article I ran across on “word fads”, or the annoying overuse of certain expressions. You know, like, awesome, epic, and, well, you know…
But first, some background.
In 1975, Lake Superior State University PR Director Bill Rabe was looking for ways to help gain publicity for little-known LSSU. He and a group of friends dreamed up the first “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness” at a New Year’s Eve party in 1975. The following day, he released the list, and the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, nominations for words and expressions to be banished have been invited and accepted throughout the year…People
from around the world have nominated hundreds of words and phrases such as “you know,” “user-friendly,” “at this point in time,” and “have a nice day,” to be purged from the language. In order to gain the most media coverage possible, the Banishment List is released each year on New Year’s Day. This is attributed to former newsman Rabe’s knowledge of the press. New Year’s Day is traditionally a slow news day.
Have some fun with your Read 180 students, and at the same time, begin to drive home an important point about broadening their expressive language. Perhaps challenge them–and yourself–in a discussion about spoken language, and explore other ways to say what they mean when they fall back on “awesome” and its cliched playmates. For 8th graders and high school students, this is a good discussion to have relative to future experiences in the workplace. Maybe create a tally system on a whiteboard every time someone in the class notices a pop culture cliched expression used–even by you!
Here are a few excerpts from the LSSU 2011 List of Banished Words:
VIRAL
“Events, photographs, written pieces and even occasional videos that attracted a great deal of attention once were simply highly publicized, repeated in news broadcasts, and talked about for a few days. Now, however, it is no longer enough to give such offerings their 15 minutes of fame, but they must be declared to ‘go viral.’ As a result, any mindless stunt or vapid bit of writing is sent by its creators whirling around the Internet and, once whirled, its creators declare it (trumpets here) ‘viral!’ Enough already! If anything is to be declared worthy enough to ‘go viral,’ clearly it should be the LSSU Banished Words list for 2011!” Lawrence Mickel, Coventry, Conn.
“I didn’t mind much when ‘viral’ came to mean an under-handed tactic by advertising companies to make their ads look like pop culture. However, now anything that becomes popular on YouTube is suddenly ‘viral.’ I just don’t get it.” Kevin Wood, Wallacetown, Ont.
EPIC
More than one nominator says the use of ‘epic’ has become an epic annoyance.
“Over-use of the word ‘epic’ has reached epic proportions. Tim Blaney, Snoqualmie, Wash.
“Standards for using ‘epic’ are so low, even ‘awesome’ is embarrassed.” Mike of Kettering, Ohio.
“I’m sure that when the history books are written or updated and stories have been passed through the generations, the epic powder on the slopes during your last ski trip or your participation in last night’s epic flash mob will probably not be included. This may be the root of this epic problem, but it seems as if during the past two years, any idea that was not successful was considered an ‘epic-fail.’ This includes the PowerPoint presentation you tried to give during this morning’s meeting, but couldn’t because of technical problems. Also, the ice storm of ‘epic proportions’ that is blanketing the east coast this winter sure looks a lot like the storm that happened last winter.” DV, Seattle, Wash.
FAIL
One nominator says, “what originally may have been a term for a stockbroker’s default is now abused by today’s youth as virtually any kind of ‘failure.’ Whether it is someone tripping, a car accident, a costumed character scaring the living daylights out a kid, or just a poor choice in fashion, these people drive me crazy thinking that anything that is a mistake is a ‘fail.’ They fail proper language!”
“It has taken over blogs, photo captions, ‘status’ comments. Anytime someone does something less than perfect, we have to read ‘FAIL!’ The word has failed us all.” Aaron Yunker, Ishpeming, Mich.
WOW FACTOR
“This buzzword is served up with a heaping of cliché factor and a side order of irritation. But the lemmings from cable-TV cooking, whatever design and fashion shows keep dishing it out. I miss the old days when ‘factor’ was only on the math-and-science menu.” Dan Muldoon, Omaha, Neb.
“Done-to-death phrase to point out something with a somewhat significantly appealing appearance.” Ann Pepper, Knoxville, Tenn.
A-HA MOMENT
“All this means is a point at which you understand something or something becomes clearer. Why can’t you just say that?” Audrey Mayo, Killeen, Tex.
BACK STORY
“This should be on the list of words that don’t need to exist because a perfectly good word has been used for years. In this case, the word is ‘history,’ or, for those who must be weaned, ‘story.’” Jeff Williams, Sherwood, Ariz.
BFF
“These chicks call each other BFF (Best Friends Forever) and it lasts about 10 minutes. Now there’s BFFA (Best Friends For Awhile), which makes more sense.” Kate Rabe Forgach, Ft. Collins, Colo.
MAN UP
“A stupid phrase when directed at men. Even more stupid when directed at a woman, as in ‘Alexis, you need to man up and join that Pilates class!’” Sherry Edwards, Clarkston, Mich.
“Another case of ‘verbing’ a noun and ending with a preposition that goes nowhere. Not only that, the phrase is insulting, especially when voiced by a female, who’d never think to say, ‘Woman up!’” Aunt Shecky, East Greenbush, NY.
“Can a woman ‘man-up,’ or would she be expected to ‘woman-up?’” Jay Leslie, Portland, Maine.
I’M JUST SAYIN’
“‘A phrase used to diffuse any ill feelings caused by a preceded remark,’ according to the Urban Dictionary. Do we really need a qualifier at the end of every sentence? People feel uncomfortable with a comment that was made and then ‘just sayin” comes rolling off the tongue? It really doesn’t change what was said, I’m just sayin’.” Becky of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
“Obviously you are saying it…you just said it!” Catherine Wilson, Granger, Ind.
“And we would never have known if you hadn’t told us.” Bob Forrest, Tempe, Ariz.
FACEBOOK / GOOGLE as verbs
“Facebook is a great, addicting website. Google is a great search engine. However, their use as verbs causes some deep problems. As bad as they are, the trend can only get worse, i.e. ‘I’m going to Twitter a few people, then Yahoo the movie listings and maybe Amazon a book or two.” Jordan of Waterloo, Ont.
LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST
“It’s an absurdity followed by a redundancy. First, things are full or they’re not; there is no fullest. Second, ‘live life’ is redundant. Finally, the expression is nauseatingly overused. What’s wrong with enjoying life fully or completely? The phrase makes me gag. I’m surprised it hasn’t appeared on the list before.” Sylvia Hall, Williamsport, Penn.
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I have a nomination to add: “At the end of the day…” This phrase leaks out of my TV screen multiple times every night during the news, no matter the channel. I can only hope I’ve never used it. But repeated and often-used expressions do have a way of worming themselves into our brains–so I might have. Our default mechanisms are formulated by our schema, so at the end of the day, we have to employ self-awareness and will to create new verbal paths…
Oops.