Blog for Business Without the Expletives

One meaning of the term “expletive” is swear word, and most business content writers, very sensibly, wouldn’t dream of including offensive language in a marketing message. There’s another meaning, however, for the term “expletive”, and while that one’s not nearly as likely to offend readers, Writers’ Digest still advises avoidance.

A syntactic expletive is a word that contributes nothing to the meaning of a sentence, only to the syntax or structure of it.

Example #1:
“It was her last argument that finally persuaded me.” How can the writer get rid of the expletive? Writers’ Digest suggests the more direct and forceful ”Her last argument finally persuaded me.”

Example #2:
“There are likely to be many researchers raising questions about this methodological approach.” Better to say “Many researchers are likely to raise questions about this methodological approach.”

When it comes to web-based communication, words, along with pictures, are a business’ only tools.  As a professional ghost blogger, I work with words and phrases. Above all, though, I teach this: Our job is to communicate, as plainly and directly as possible, how your business – or your client’s business – helps its clients and customers.

Jargon and expletives are bad, and they’re even worse for blogs. Searchers came to your blog to “find out” stuff, not to “ascertain”, to get “help”, not to “facilitate”. You want them to “use”, not “utilize” your services and products. You offer the “best”, not the “optimum” of each. You help clients “plan”, not “facilitate”, and you do that “by”, not “by means of” being great at what you do.

Leave out the “that”s and the “there are”s, and get rid of gobbledygook in your blog!