New Year resolutions

One of my New Year resolutions is to try to communicate more clearly, using plain English whenever possible, eschewing jargon, and of course avoiding clichés like the plague.

We all know the sort of clichés to avoid – the ones that come up far too often, such as:

Pick the low-hanging fruit
Don’t reinvent the wheel
It’s not rocket science
Hit the ground running
The elephant in the room
Keep in mind the big picture

… and so on.

I was amused to find a link to the Encyclopaedia of Business Clichés here.

One of those listed at that link (#11) is the new language of Web 2.0. A more historical example, #77, “let’s run it up the flagpole and see who salutes” dates back at least as far as the 1957 movie Twelve Angry Men (the line is spoken by actor Robert Webber). So perhaps I’m wasting my time and clichés will always be with us.

But I promise to try.

I’d like to wish all my readers a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2009.