![]() ![]() Sometimes, if you feel like you’re 100 percent right, you may use words such as “clearly,” “obviously,” or “beyond doubt.” If you do this, you’re falling prey to naive realism - the belief that you’re privy to some objective reality that others will clearly see and agree with. Over twenty years of teaching and research, which I describe in my new book Choosing Courage, I’ve found that people often forget a critical point: When navigating a difficult conversation, you need to craft your message while keeping the other person’s feelings and opinions in mind.īelow are some of the most common mistakes I’ve observed - words and phrases that can slip into our vocabulary - and explanations for why they often cause trouble. Your best laid plans will go to waste if you offend or anger the other person. And it doesn’t matter how prepared you are. (Use the alphabetical links to jump to that letter.Difficult conversations are difficult for a reason, and when you’re anxious or stressed out, it’s easy to say the wrong thing. You need to pick the one that best fits what you are trying to say.Ī B C D E F G H I J L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z Often there will be a choice of several words. If you find yourself about to write, type or dictate a word you wouldn’t use in every day conversation, look it up in the A to Z. And using everyday words is an important first step towards clearer writing. But it will help if you want to get rid of words like ‘notwithstanding’, ‘expeditiously’ and phrases like ‘in the majority of instances’ and ‘ at this moment in time’. ![]() There’s more to it than just replacing ‘hard’ words with ‘easy’ words, and many of these alternatives won’t work in every situation. ![]() ![]() On its own the guide won’t teach you how to write in plain English. This guide gives hundreds of plain English alternatives to the pompous words and phrases that litter official writing. The A - Z of alternative words Calling all writers ![]()
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