Metaphors are the soul of language. That sentence is a metaphor of its own, of course, and you may think it鈥檚 a huge overstatement. I stand by it.
To perceive an idea or an object in a new way, or to freshen an abstract concept, is critical to both good writing and good thinking. By contrast, few things make for worse writing than a stale metaphor, otherwise known as a clich茅 鈥� except two or three together.
A classic example of bad metaphors in action appeared in a memo written this month by the president of Air sa国际传媒, Calin Rovinescu. I haven鈥檛 seen the full memo; I鈥檝e read only the excerpts that appeared in various media. There is, however, no disagreement in those sources about the memo鈥檚 contents.
The news in it was bleak, and Rovinescu may have tried to make it sound better by resorting to clich茅. 鈥淲hile we have made good progress on controlling costs,鈥� he wrote, 鈥渢he ground beneath us is shifting almost daily and the goalposts are moving with it. Certainly our competitors are not standing still.鈥� He鈥檚 talking about an airline, not a football game in a swamp. Business leaders, I鈥檝e noticed over the years, often resort to jock talk when their position is weak. Just what are those nomadic goalposts, anyway?
Clich茅s are easy to spot. An even more common failing of business language is the use of phrases that don鈥檛 quite say what they mean. That鈥檚 where euphemisms come in: By disguising the harsh truth, they soften its impact.
To quote again from Rovinescu鈥檚 memo: 鈥淭he revenue environment has been and is expected to remain extremely challenging.鈥� I think he means Air sa国际传媒 is getting a disappointing amount of money from its customers. If you stick 鈥渆nvironment鈥� after almost any noun, you can make it sound grandiose.
As corporate euphemisms go, the Air sa国际传媒 memo pales by comparison with a press release that Citigroup sent out in December. This is, according to its own website, 鈥渢he leading global bank,鈥� with offices in about 140 countries.
So what exactly was it saying in the following statement? 鈥淐itigroup today announced a series of repositioning actions that will further reduce expenses and improve efficiency across the company while maintaining Citi鈥檚 unique capabilities to serve clients, especially in the emerging markets. These actions will result in increased business efficiency, streamlined operations and an optimized consumer footprint across geographies.鈥�
The answer: It was cutting 11,000 jobs. Layoffs might cause pain, but who could argue with 鈥渞epositioning actions?鈥� Any time an employer starts blathering on about 鈥渙ptimized consumer footprint,鈥� workers would be smart to watch out.
Each decade brings its own buzzwords 鈥� and as I write that phrase, I鈥檓 aware that 鈥渂uzzwords鈥� is dangerously close to being a clich茅 in its own right. One that鈥檚 almost unavoidable now, particularly in the business world, is 鈥渓everage.鈥� It once referred simply to the use of a certain tool; then it meant the power or advantage acquired by using that tool; now it鈥檚 a verb, meaning to gain such power or advantage.
鈥淟everage鈥� can still serve as a noun, as in this cotton-wool verbiage from a company named Inspectioneering: 鈥淚n response to reader feedback, we implemented some important improvements in 2012. As we broaden our scope to include all aspects of Asset Integrity Management, its synergy and leverage become increasingly important.鈥� Sure, if you say so 鈥� but what are you saying?
Any government press release is worth reading closely, not for the pleasure of its language but to see what its words may be hiding. Last month, for instance, sa国际传媒 and Alberta launched an 鈥渙nline data portal鈥� for the oilsands, and the federal environment minister said: 鈥淲e are delivering on our promise to ensure that scientific data from the monitoring activity is transparent and accessible. With this portal, our respective governments are actively encouraging informed discussions and analysis on the impacts of oil-sands development based on high-quality scientific information.鈥�
If you believe that, I have some seafront real estate in North Korea to sell you. Now if only I could leverage my footprint so as to optimize synergy in the challenging column environment 鈥�
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Mark Abley is a Canadian writer and editor. He wrote this for the Montreal Gazette.
