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journalism

Thursday July 3, 2008

Here it is! My much-anticipated list of words I hate

Posted by: Gabe Hartwig at 9:21PM CST on July 3, 2008

For about a year now, I've been saying I should start a blog listing of words I hate. My friend Andrea knows -- every time someone at work says a ridiculous word (journalism is full of stupid words), I tell her I'm adding it to my nonexistent blog.

So here, in no particular order, are words I hate, along with part of speech and example. I will add to the list when I deem necessary.

blurb noun
Can you write a blurb for A1 to explain this overwritten investigative series?

notion noun
I finally found the nut graf, so I came up with a notion for a headline.

gin up verb
Andrea did a stellar job ginning up all those illustrations for NewsWatch.

guru noun
Gabe is a front-page guru.

alas interjection
Diana, alas.

square away idiom
Once I am issued wire photos, I can get the A section squared away.

goodly adjective
This campaign-finance package certainly contains a goodly amount of text and graphics.

effort verb
Against all odds, let's effort to close the Sunday bulldog on Thursday evening.

gussy verb
Erica got all gussied up for her trip to the theater.

tweak verb
Someone should tweak this headline. And by tweak, I mean rewrite.

kudos noun
Major kudos are in order, for you filed your lengthy column in a timely manner.

rejigger verb
If this story is going to grow by 12 inches between editions, I should probably get to work rejiggering the jump page immediately.

Xerox verb, noun
After I go Xerox the budget, I will leave a Xerox on your desk.

gearing up, ramping up verb
As the excitement is ramping up, officials with the Annual Hayseed Festival say they are gearing up for another exciting weekend.

looks on verb
Gabe performs the main action described in the photo cutline, while a confused Norma looks on.

stay-cation noun
Because I cannot be bothered with traveling and using pre-existing words, I am taking a stay-cation this summer.

natch adverb
Andrea's visit to the candy jar elicited a great deal of smalltalk, natch.

by and large idiom
By and large, giant online refers and mediocre standalone photos do not make interesting or compelling display packages.

thrust noun
Please, for the love of God, someone help me extract what the main thrust of this story is supposed to be.

beaut noun
Man, this wide-open page with 112 inches of copy and one tiny photo sure is a beaut!

wiggle room noun
On Friday nights, when Andrea and I become giddy from dealing with too much stress and annoyances, it may be a good idea to send us to the wiggle room for a few minutes.

camera ready adjective
This page is virtually error free! If this were olden times, we might have called it camera ready.

scramble noun, verb
When we heard about the breaking news, a scramble ensued. Those who were less prepared scrambled to find something to do.

conjure verb
The word conjure conjures up thoughts of lazy writing. And Harry Potter.

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