Recently my friend and I were discussing office jargon and how their are certain words that are over-utilized. One of those words is 'utilize', you actually never need to utilize this word, 'use' is always sufficient. However, people utilize it beyond recognition.
I just received an email from a friend and the bottom said this :
"Attention AOL users: To utilize links, cut and paste the link into the address line of your browser."
Who fucking utilizes links? I use them. Pay attention, you're going to hear people utilize 'utilize' now all the time instead of 'use'.
mary [email] said at 4:30 PM 10-07-2005: This is the chief professional curse suffered by copy editors. By commenting on other people's language errors, you invite the gods to mock yours.
shauna [email] said at 5:38 PM 10-07-2005: writers also love pointing out when you have fucked up one tiny time in the edit you spent 2 hours doing. sometimes i just hit myself in the head with the AP guide until it stops hurting.
i also make it a point to be a real shitty speler n talker when im off the clock.
ed [email] said at 5:44 PM 10-07-2005: Writers (*especially* frustrated ones) will try, at every opportunity, to destroy people who make their living writing.
shauna [email] said at 5:48 PM 10-07-2005: writers have the most fragile egos in the world. no, wait. music writers do. hold on, alt-weekly rock writers with government day jobs. who used to be in bands. when they weren't so old. they do.
ed [email] said at 6:00 PM 10-07-2005: I've never been in a band.
I've never written for a living, although I desperately wanted to. And I was told (by professors, as well as family/friends) that I had a real shot.
Sadly - or maybe not - I didn't buy into the hype. I descended into the Southern Alcoholic Writer persona without the benefit of ever being what I'd call a "writer".
Back in my young'un years, my biggest aspiration was to go to Oxford and follow in Faulkner's footsteps.
Tragic alcoholism and writing. A Southern legacy that I always hoped I'd continue... I'll probably work out at least half of that. Unfortunatley, it's not the writing part that I'm likely to achieve.
kara [email] said at 5:27 PM 10-07-2005: I like to speak using as many syllables as possible, and that's the dead truth.
I'm compensating for my lack of legitimate intelligence and/or learning.
lou said at 12:47 PM 10-08-2005: actually im sick of hearing that word actually .what are we speaking of non reality then we must peomt listener to converte to reality its insane and im tired of actually hearing it this actually is a real issue of grammer overusage please respond an address
dave [email] said at 11:08 AM 10-10-2005: this is another huge pet peeve of mine. it falls in line with actually above. Both words are used as emphasis and filler when they add nothing. actually their usage is literally annoying.
myriam [email] said at 11:29 AM 10-10-2005: I think I've bitched about this exact word usage before on killoggs. DAMN. it drives me NUTS. it started out with all the business majors in college, and now it has extended to all middle-management everywhere. i HATE it.
