Passion, or something like it

It probably won’t surprise you to find out that we’re pretty keen on the English language here at Emphasis. And we like to know that others are too.

Fortunately, evidence of this is easy to find: look no further than the comments section at the bottom of just about any online article about our language. Take this Guardian blog about the growing use of the phrase ‘right now’: what follows is a veritable hotbed of debate and rancorous ravings on some uses of English people just love to hate.

It seems many members of the public take deep and personal offence at everything from classic management speak (‘blue-sky thinking’, ‘window of opportunity’) to misplaced reflexive pronouns (‘yourself’ for ‘you’; ‘myself’ for ‘me’); from starting every sentence with ‘look’ to peppering them too generously with ‘like’. And a fight might yet break out between the haters of Americanisms and the haters of haters of Americanisms.

It may get pretty ugly sometimes, but they do say that the opposite of love is actually not hate, but indifference. And while passionate certainly isn’t a word to use lightly, it’s safe to say there are obviously some ticks and traits of our language that get people pretty hot and bothered. This can only mean that they care.

So show us you care too. Leave a comment here in our writing blog on any aspect of the language that raises your ire, your interest, or anything else.

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Author: Catie Holdridge

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Catie joined Emphasis with an English literature and creative writing degree and a keen interest in what makes language work. Having researched, written, commissioned and edited dozens of articles for the Emphasis blog, she now knows more about the intricacies of effective professional writing than she ever thought possible.

She produced and co-wrote our online training programme, The Complete Business Writer, and these days oversees all the Emphasis marketing efforts. And she keeps office repartee at a suitably literary level.