"Space" is the latest buzzword to drive me crazy. Until today, I assumed that it was just trendy lingo written by vocabulary-challenged twenty-somethings that would soon fade away.
But this morning, "space" appeared in two publications with editors who should know better: The Wall Street Journal and the PR Week 2007 Agency Business Report (where, in an even worse sin, it appears multiple times in the same article!).
Why am I getting so irritated by such a simple word? Because "space" creates several problems in your communications:
* It is a meaningless word when used outside of the traditional definitions of describing a physical area or extraterrestrial place
* It is a poor substitute for older, more specific terms such as "market" or "industry"
* It is difficult for international readers to interpret correctly
* It can make your text unnecessarily wordy. In the WSJ example, the phrase "Like other devices in this space," could be written more clearly and concisely as "Like competing devices,".
Most importantly, like other vacuous buzzwords, "space" can diminish the impact and perception of your content -- and your marketing messages
Let's put "space" in its proper place: outside of your marketing materials.
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