Jargon Busting Resources
Bullfighter
The Fight the Bull site provides a free Microsoft Word/PowerPoint add-in that acts in much the same way as a grammar checker, but concentrates on jargon and readability.
Bullfighter scans documents for often-used jargon and includes a 'Bull Index' to rate content and readability. You can include your own 'bull' words, alternatives, and comments.
In its default state, Bullfighter concentrates mainly on marketing and consulting terms, and really only comes into its own once you add specific words and phrases for your own documents.
Bullfighter will never replace clear writing and human proofing, but it will give you a good overall view of the frequency of jargon in your content, and rate your sentence length and syllable count.
Read more: http://www.fightthebull.com/bullfighter.asp
FAQs and download: http://www.fightthebull.com/bullfighterfaq.asp
Tony Proscio's Essays
Tony Proscio's essays were commissioned by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and are available for download from their Jargon Files page at: http://www.emcf.org/pub/jargon.
In Other Words - PDF 466Kb
Bad Words for Good - PDF 164Kb
When Words Fail - PDF 633Kb
Don Watson's: Death Sentences
Don Watson's book - 'Death Sentences: How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language' - should be mandatory reading for anybody who has to write for the public.
'Death Sentences' is available from almost any good book store:
ISBN (Hardcover): 1592401406
ISBN (Paperback): 1592402054
Using MS Word's Custom Dictionaries Dictionaries, Thesauri, and Usage Resources
Related:
Plain English Alternatives for Jargon Words
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