[Editors] Olympic fun

[Charles Jennings]

Dear Editors,

 

Slate.com has an amusing take on the Olympics with its 'Sap-o-meter', a
widget that automatically tracks the usage of sappy words in TV coverage of
the Olympics and displays them a tag cloud; see
http://www.slate.com/id/2197239/ and daily updates at Slate.com. As they
explain:

 

"..we drew up a list of 33 syrupy words that NBC has chronically overused:
adversity, battled, cancer, challenges, courage, cry, death, dedication,
determination, dream, emotion, glory, golden, hardship, heart, hero,
inspiration, inspire, journey, magic, memory, miracle, mom, mother,
Olympic-sized, overcome, passion, proud, sacrifice, spirit, tears, tragedy,
triumph.."

 

I thought we could use a similar Sap-o-meter for biomedical press releases
and other promotional materials.  In an idle moment (ok, I was
procrastinating instead of editing a press release), I drafted a list of
words & phrases that I reach for when inspiration fails:

 

Dreamed 

Unlocking

Mystery

Devastating

Ravage

Scourge

Afflicted

Urgent need

Millions of Americans

New hope

Advance

breakthrough

Impressive

Exciting

Remarkable

Extraordinary

Ground-breaking

Revolutionary

Spectacular

State-of-the-art

Renowned

World-class

Cutting-edge

Tour-de-force

Unimaginable

Impact

 

 

Anyone want to nominate contenders for the sappiest press release?  

 

-------------------------------------------------------

Charles Jennings, Ph.D.

Director, Neurotechnology Program

McGovern Institute for Brain Research

MIT 46-3160

Cambridge, MA 02139

(617) 324 3977

charlesj at mit.edu

 

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