Obfuscation be gone
| Blackwood, N.J.
Gobbledygook be gone. Communications Briefings is sponsoring a national contest designed to get executives to jettison their jargon.
The contest, titled ''Try this test: Write with just short words,'' requires execs to explain the role of short words and how they can improve communication.
Following their own standard, editors of the corporate newsletter wrote the contest description in one-syllable words. ''What is our aim? It's to prove that words don't have to be long to be first-rate, and to show that short words can have charm, grace, strength, punch, and zest.''
Publisher Don Bagin cited a study showing the average business letter contains about 15 useless words.
