Words to use and avoid

What a words list is

A words list is one page. On the left, the words and phrases your business uses, with a line saying why. On the right, the words and phrases it avoids, each with the replacement to use instead. Nothing else is on it, because anything else would make it two pages, and two pages is where this stops working.

The argument for it is simple and slightly deflating. A forty-page guide is read once, by the person who commissioned it. A single page gets printed, pinned beside a monitor and looked at while someone is actually writing. Adoption is the whole point, and adoption goes down as page count goes up.

It does not cover the names of your own products and plans. That is brand vocabulary, a different list with a different job. It does not settle spelling, capitals, hyphens or how you write dates; that is a style guide. And it is not brand voice guidelines, which describe how the company sounds across whole pieces. A word list will not fix a page with the wrong structure or the wrong argument. It fixes the surface, and the surface is where most of the visible drift lives.

When you need one

You need one when two or three people write for you and their drafts are broadly fine but keep needing the same small corrections. You are editing the same handful of words out of every draft, and you have been doing it for a year.

You need one when a voice document already exists and nobody uses it. Extracting the word list from a guide you already own is a short job and usually the thing that finally makes the guide take effect.

You need one when the budget will not stretch to guidelines but something has to change before the next round of writing starts. This is the smallest piece of work on this part of the site, and it is honestly the best value on it.

You do not need one if the writing is inconsistent in ways a word list cannot reach: pages that contradict each other on price or promise, or material that sounds like four different companies. That is a voice consistency audit first, then guidelines. A word list laid over a genuine voice problem hides it for a month.

What goes on it

Every entry comes from your own writing or your own trade. No generic lists of corporate cliches, because a writer who does not recognise the example ignores the rule.

• Words you use. The ones that already sound like you, including the plain ones your competitors avoid. Usually eight to twelve, with a short reason each, because people need to know what to reach for and not only what to drop.
• Words you avoid, with replacements. Never a bare prohibition. "Utilise" is struck through and "use" sits beside it. A ban without a replacement produces a pause and then the banned word.
• Trade words your customers do not know. The terms that are correct, that you will keep using internally, and that need translating in anything a buyer reads.
• Claim words you cannot support. The adjectives that would need evidence you do not have, or that your regulator or association would object to. These are the ones that get a business into actual trouble.
• The never list. Five or six words, in a box, that must not appear in anything. Short enough to memorise, which is why it is separate from the rest.

What you get

The page. One side of paper, designed to be legible at arm's length and printed in black and white without losing anything. Delivered as a document you can edit and a file you can print.

The reasons sheet. A second page, not for pinning up, giving the reasoning behind the twenty or so entries most likely to be argued about. Somebody always argues, and the answer should not have to be "because I said so".

The examples. Three or four short passages of your own writing, shown before and after the list is applied, so the effect is visible rather than theoretical.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A bookkeeping practice in Calgary with four staff, two of whom write to clients daily. The owner has been quietly correcting the same words for two years and has never written them down. Reading the website, sixty sent emails and the two most recent onboarding packs produces a first draft with 58 entries, which is far too many.

Cutting it to 34 is the real work. What survives is what recurs. "Solutions" goes, replaced by naming the actual service. "Utilise" goes. "Reach out" goes in favour of "call" or "email", because clients ring and clients write, and "reach out" describes neither. "Please find attached" is kept, against advice, because the owner's clients are older and expect it, and a list that fights the owner will not be used. Four accounting terms are flagged for translation in client-facing writing but kept in file notes. The never list has five entries, one of which is a claim about turnaround time that the practice cannot meet in March. The page goes up beside both desks and the owner stops correcting drafts within a month.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. Who writes for you, what you keep correcting, and whether a voice document already exists to extract from. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Agreed before anything starts. This is a small job and the price reflects it.
3. Reading. Your site, a run of sent emails, and whatever templates your customers receive. One to two days.
4. The draft list. Long first, then cut. Sent to you as a draft with the candidates I am unsure about marked, because you know which battles are worth fighting with your own staff.
5. One round, then the page. The final page, the reasons sheet and the before-and-after examples. Usually inside a fortnight of the first call, and faster if a guide already exists.

What it costs

Quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call, agreed in writing, and not changed without your agreement. It is the least expensive piece of work in this part of the site, and it costs less again when it is extracted from voice guidelines you already own. The pricing page explains how fixed pricing works and what the published bands cover.

What happens next

Most businesses use the list for a few months and then find they want the rest: the full description of how the company sounds, with the word list already written and included. If the existing pages still carry the words you have just banned, bringing them into line is the follow-up job. And if the drafts still need work after the surface is fixed, coaching the person who writes them does more than another document would. This work is complete on its own: one page, in use, and nothing further is assumed.