Editor's tips on how to avoid the process of bad word usage

I'm kind of a word snob. I don't use multisyllabic words all the time (the exception: "multisyllabic"), but I insist that some words are irritatingly unnecessary.

That makes sense, seeing that my job title in real life is "senior editor" (I suspect the "senior" part is often more applicable than "editor," but that's for another day).

Anyway, as part of my job, I frequently come across common, unnecessary words, which surprisingly irritate me.

Because you are nice and don't want to irritate me, here are five words and how not to use them.

(Side note: Don't ask me to differentiate between affect and effect. Each time they're used, I have to stop and think about it for at least 10 seconds).

1. Utilize. This word gets . . . used . . .  frequently by people who apparently are trying simply to add two syllables to the word "use." In zero cases does "utilize" mean something other than "use."  Even worse, the word "utilization" also should be replaced with use (with the hard "s" sound). Here's a tip to remember the correct way: Always use the simple word. Get it?

2. Process. Former Daily Republic reporter and colleague Ryan McCarthy was a hawk about this. Ryan claimed that the word "process" was almost always unnecessary, particularly in government writing. He would see a report that said, "the city will begin the hiring process . . . " and say "they mean the city will hire." He'd see something about "the writing process" and say, "don't they mean 'writing?'" I'd never considered that before Ryan. Now I can't forget it.

3. Signage. One of my (not) favorite dumb words since signage really just is a two-syllable word for signs. Over the past few decades, it's become commonplace for people to talk about putting up "signage" around the office or around the property, by which they mean to put up signs. This leads to the next word  . . .

4. Usage. If "signage" really means "sign," then it follows (correctly) that "usage" really means "use." Usage is the cousin to utilize! I guess there are some instances in which "usage" is correct, but for the life of me I can't figure out when. Once again, this is an example of adding a syllable to a word to make it seem more important, which is like me going by the name Bradage to seem more significant. It's just silly(age).

5. Myriad. Admittedly, this is a good word, but it should always be alone. And by that, I mean it's wrong to add "of" after it. There are myriad reasons for this – not myriad of reasons for this. Because myriad means "countless," and you wouldn't say there are countless of reasons why you do something. Right?

There are far more misused words and perhaps in the future, we can discuss them.

But let me make this much clear: While there are myriad of decision-making processes by which you can determine whether to utilize signage or usage, all of them are wrong.

Because there are myriad decisions to determine whether to use incorrect words(age).

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.