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Google, You’ve Gone Too Far

Certainly we can admire Google for its growth, global reach, inventiveness, and the brilliance of its teams. But they’ve gone too far. Cleverness has its limits. Analyze, yes. Optimize, yes. Publicize, yes–those are all things online content providers want to do. But troubleshootize? No, Google, you’ve gone too far.

 

Troubleshootize

 

The word is troubleshoot. Tizing it adds nothing to its meaning and, in fact, detracts from clarity. The reader wonders What does it mean to troubleshootize? 

When I was learning my craft as a business writer many years ago, the experts often criticized the use of ize words, commanding, “Use–don’t utilize!” and “Set priorities–don’t prioritize” and “Finishdon’t finalize!” Writing teachers often disparaged ize words.

I agreed with their promoting of use. It made perfect sense to me as a shorter, crisper version of utilize. But not so fast: Even today, my dictionaries point out that utilize can have a special meaning that use doesn’t have. The American Heritage College Dictionary explains:

Utilize can mean “to find a profitable or practical use for.” Thus, the sentence “The teachers were unable to use the new computers” might mean only that the teachers were unable to operate the computers, whereas “The teachers were unable to utilize the new computers” suggests that the teachers could not find ways to employ the computers in instruction.

Prioritize has come into its own, at least for most writers. Here’s what The American Heritage College Dictionary says about prioritize:

It can be argued that prioritize serves a useful function in providing a single word to mean “arrange according to priority,” but is is often regarded as corporate or bureaucratic jargon. Resistance to prioritize, however, has fallen dramatically in recent decades. In 1976, 97 percent of the Usage Panel rejected its use in the phrase “a first attempt to prioritize the tasks facing the new administration.” By 1997, however 53 percent of the Panel approved the use of prioritize in the sentence “Overwhelmed with work, the lawyer was forced to prioritize his caseload.” This suggests that, like finalize, prioritize is rapidly securing a place in our everyday vocabulary.

Bryan A. Garner disagrees with the dictionary. He writes in Garner’s Modern English Usage:

Prioritize. Writers with sound stylistic priorities avoid [this word]. Prioritize, dating from the mid-1960s, typifies bureaucratic bafflegab. . . . Instead of prioritize, conservative writers tend to use set priorities or establish priorities. In time, of course, prioritize might lose its bureaucratic odor. But that has not yet arrived.

I’m with the dictionary. Prioritize has no odor for me!

And finalize? I’m happy to use it. I’m working to finalize this blog post right now. The American Heritage Dictionary describes the gradual acceptance of finalize: 

Once considered objectionable because of its association with the language of bureaucracy, finalize is steadily gaining acceptance. In the late 1960s, 90 percent of the Usage Panel found the example “finalize plans for a class reunion” unacceptable. . . . By 1997, only 29 percent of the Usage Panel found it unacceptable in the sentence “We will send you more information once we finalize plans for the reunion.”

Garner’s Modern English Usage is on board with finalize:

The word’s advantage is that it has the compactness of a single word, as opposed to most of its equivalents: make final, put into final form, and bring to an end. Today few people object to it, and it is all but ubiquitous.

Still, complete is a better choice when it will suffice.

As Garner said, the advantage of ize words is their compactness. Why use more than one word when one conveys your meaning?

Well, sometimes a phrase, though wordier, is clearer and less cumbersome. I’d use several words rather than any of these, which appear in Merriam-Webster’s Rhyming Dictionary, Second Edition:

fragmentize
acclimatize
channelize
concretize
factorize
signalize
conservatize
digitalize
impersonalize
parenthesize
subjectivize
traditionalize
epigrammatize

Those words can raise more questions with readers than answers.

Guess which word does not appear in the rhyming dictionary? Take a moment. Then scroll down to the word I’m looking for.

Troubleshootize–it’s nowhere. That’s because troubleshoot is a clear, acceptable verb. There’s no reason to elongate it.

Do any ize words drive you crazy? You may just need to get over them, but I’m happy to let you complain politely here.

Lynn

 

Posted by Lynn Gaertner Johnson
By Lynn Gaertner-Johnston

Lynn Gaertner-Johnston has helped thousands of employees and managers improve their business writing skills and confidence through her company, Syntax Training. In her corporate training career of more than 20 years, she has worked with executives, engineers, scientists, sales staff, and many other professionals, helping them get their messages across with clarity and tact.

A gifted teacher, Lynn has led writing classes at more than 100 companies and organizations such as MasterCard, Microsoft, Boeing, Nintendo, REI, AARP, Ledcor, and Kaiser Permanente. Near her home in Seattle, Washington, she has taught managerial communications in the MBA programs of the University of Washington and UW Bothell. She has created a communications course, Business Writing That Builds Relationships, and provides the curriculum at no cost to college instructors.

A recognized expert in business writing etiquette, Lynn has been quoted in "The Wall Street Journal," "The Atlantic," "Vanity Fair," and other media.

Lynn sharpened her business writing skills at the University of Notre Dame, where she earned a master's degree in communication, and at Bradley University, with a bachelor's degree in English. She grew up in suburban Chicago, Illinois.

8 comments on “Google, You’ve Gone Too Far”

  • My guess is that this is Google’s attempt at humor (in the name of parallelism). But, as you pointed out, “troubleshootize” is not a word; rather than being funny, it comes across as silly / uninformed.

    I’m with you on this one!

  • I’m bilingual French/English and there’s a word in French which means ‘to cover extensively in the media’. can you guess what that word is in French? Hit: the French love anglicizing and the ‘-ize’.

  • Does this have anything to do with the “…how are you guize…” greeting we receive from restaurant servers? Arghh.

  • Lynn, as always, thank you for these helpful (and affirming) thoughts! I completely agree with you about “troubleshoot”, whose meaning is perfectly clear without any “izing”!

    @Jennifer: is the French word “mediatize” or “meadiatise”?

    The workplace jargon term that drives me crazy is “incentivize”. As far as I can tell, it is not recognized as a word in any of the official dictionaries. Or has it gone the way of “finalize” and “prioritize”? I have trouble coming up with a precise alternative, other than “to provide incentive”, so I usually rewrite around it. I would be most interested in your thoughts and those of your readers.

  • @Jennifer: please forgive the typo in my post above. The second word in quotation marks was misspelled and should have said “mediatise”.

  • Hi Friends,

    Thanks for commenting. I’m taking a long-distance train (Seattle-Chicago) with spotty internet, so I’m going to be brief.

    Jennifer, we are all eager to learn your word. Is it something like “publicize” or “granmediatize”? Tell!

    Kathi, I used to hate “incentivize,” but I’ve gotten used to it. I empathize (a good one).

    Gotta go. We’re leaving civilization!

    Lynn

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