Don't Reach Out: Bringing English Back to Business

By James McCoy

Nobody talks like this at home.

You don't tell your husband you'll circle back to him about dinner. You don't reach out to your mother to arrange a meaningful conversation. And you certainly don't tell your friends down the pub that you're beyond excited to leverage the weekend.

Yet somehow, the moment we enter an office, perfectly ordinary English goes out of the window.

We stop contacting people and start reaching out. We don't discuss things; we have conversations around them. We don't make mistakes; mistakes are made. And apparently nobody can send an email without first expressing the hope that it finds its recipient well.

When did we start talking like this? And, more importantly, why?

In Don't Reach Out: Bringing English Back to Business, James McCoy takes a thoroughly irreverent look at the language of modern working life. Drawing on his experiences in offices, meetings and email exchanges, he explores the jargon, clichés, grammatical crimes and downright absurdities that have somehow become acceptable business English.

From LinkedIn's epidemic of people being beyond excited to the mysterious disappearance of personal responsibility, nothing is quite safe.

This isn't a grammar textbook, nor is it an argument against useful professional terminology. It's a plea for people to start speaking and writing like human beings again.

Because if you wouldn't say it to someone in the pub, perhaps you should think twice before putting it in an email.

No need to reach out. Just buy the book.