On June 10th at 5:22 am EST, the millionth word in the English language was coined, according to Paul J.J. Payack, founder of the Global Language Monitor. With new terms such as financial tsunami, de-friend, and carbon footprint becoming part of our language, “I just cannot imagine any other language offering such opportunities…,” says Simon Winchester, author of “The meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary.”

Yet are more words better?  Powerful communication comes with simplicity.  Shorter, easy to understand words/phrases make for a more powerful message.

 ”Big” or trendy words can work against our communication.  Examples of many words that can be simpler:

• Ask for their consideration  - Consider
• In the event of   - If
• I’d like to thank you  - Thank you
• I’d like to take this opportunity to – Just say it!  
• Daily basis -  Daily
• I wanted to ask you - ask the question

This week, avoid redundancies and delete words that don’t add to your meaning.  You’ll save your breath and your listener will “hear” the message better.

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Today’s blog post is by Lynn Zimmer of the Sales Pro Insider team.  Nancy Bleeke is “up north” with her family away from all things that plug into an electric socket.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tags: Communication
July 14th, 2009