Miracles and paradigm shifts: Banned words

Dec. 4th, 2009 by Pia Christensen
Filed under: Health journalism 

Writer Carl Zimmer has posted an “Index of Banned Words” in science writing. Zimmer’s list grew out of one he compiled for his science writing class that has since been expanded by reader suggestions.

Some words and phrases that made the list:

  • Missing link
  • Seminal
  • Impact (verb)
  • Demographic leveling

Zimmer clarifies that he doesn’t mean these words should never be used but that writers need to learn to explain science in ways that people can understand:

What I mean is that anyone who wants to learn how to write about science, and to be read by people who aren’t being paid to read, should work hard to learn how to explain science in plain yet elegant English – not by relying on scientific jargon, code-words, or meaningless cliches.

So what words and phrases should be banned – or at least require some thought before using – in health journalism?

(Hat tip to NASW’s “On Science Blogs this Week“)

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , ,

Comments

2 Comments on Miracles and paradigm shifts: Banned words

  1. uberVU - social comments on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 1:55 PM

    2. Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by AHCJ_Pia: Miracles and paradigm shifts: Banned words http://tinyurl.com/ykxd2yt...

  2. Andrew Holtz on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 3:54 PM

    3. Another list to look at was put together by AHCJ member Gary Schwitzer a few years ago:
    http://www.tc.umn.edu/~schwitz/The7words.htm

Please read our blog commenting policies.