Anonymous
Post 09/29/2014 15:08     Subject: Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
The misuse of "gentleman" sets my teeth on edge.

examples;

"The gentleman, Mr. Smith, who was convicted today of mass murder.."

or

"Police have the gentleman in custody who robbed the senior citizen at gunpoint."

Waiting to hear a reporter soon describe Jessie Matthew as "the gentleman..."
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2014 15:00     Subject: Re:Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
Anonymous wrote:I can see why "the ask" annoys you. I get annoyed by this kind of thing, too, and I'm not even a lawyer.

Remember when "impact" was largely a singular noun? Now, we've got the Weather Channel describing the "impacts" of storms.

Remember when "impacted" was an adjective that described wisdom teeth? Now, we've got people being "impacted" by all kinds of things.

Guess this is what keeps the English language from going the way of Latin.



For a while everyone said "let's touch base." That phrase should have been limited by law to baseball players!

Now, everyone on TV says "on the ground." "There will be no boots on the ground." Or "our reporter, Don Dingbat, is on the ground." Then the picture cuts away to a reporter standing, not sprawled on the ground!
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2014 09:28     Subject: Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"I'm a lawyer who does some government relations work. I use it with certain people in a conversation or an informal email, but not in a letter or legal memo. It's called colloquialism.

And when you use it I think less of you, so it be hooves you to not do that.

+1. It really does make you sound like a dimwit. There is a suitable word: request. Why do you need to turn a verb into a noun?"

Really, I'm a "dimwit" to use the same term as others with whom I'm working (lobbyists, PR specialists)? Well, I guess that is better than being seen as an uptight, asshole lawyer, which is how you two would be perceived. I have a reputation as someone who is both good to work with and who does high quality work, the former because I'm flexible enough to speak the same language as others around me.


different side, same coin... I don't see you as a tightass lawyer, I see you as a different form of twit, the phony, glib, jargon-speak gibberish guy who doesn't know enough to use words properly in his desire to sound hip & cool with his equally clueless compatriots.

As I said earlier, your reputation would suffer if you used that kind of vapidspeak around me much ... my former boss did, he was perceived as a lightweight as a result ... lasted about 8 months before he moved on.



p.s. re your poing about being "flexible enough to speak the same language...", so if you were confabbing with some guys who were, e.g., using other inappropriate jargon, you'd go there too? That's your measure of professional skill? Hardly.

The professionalism is in knowing how to communicate without resorting to wannabe sloppy usage while also not sounding like an uptight prick.

It's not that hard to do.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2014 09:25     Subject: Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
Anonymous wrote:"I'm a lawyer who does some government relations work. I use it with certain people in a conversation or an informal email, but not in a letter or legal memo. It's called colloquialism.

And when you use it I think less of you, so it be hooves you to not do that.

+1. It really does make you sound like a dimwit. There is a suitable word: request. Why do you need to turn a verb into a noun?"

Really, I'm a "dimwit" to use the same term as others with whom I'm working (lobbyists, PR specialists)? Well, I guess that is better than being seen as an uptight, asshole lawyer, which is how you two would be perceived. I have a reputation as someone who is both good to work with and who does high quality work, the former because I'm flexible enough to speak the same language as others around me.


different side, same coin... I don't see you as a tightass lawyer, I see you as a different form of twit, the phony, glib, jargon-speak gibberish guy who doesn't know enough to use words properly in his desire to sound hip & cool with his equally clueless compatriots.

As I said earlier, your reputation would suffer if you used that kind of vapidspeak around me much ... my former boss did, he was perceived as a lightweight as a result ... lasted about 8 months before he moved on.

Anonymous
Post 09/29/2014 01:44     Subject: Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
I hear you PP. Our audio deliverables are suffering from a serious lack of earballs. What we need is to repurpose our mindshare to be more impactful to our audience. I talked this with the VP who deadlined us to COB.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2014 00:11     Subject: Re:Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I hate this too! I used to be a journalist and never had to deal with this kind of silly corporate-speak. Now I do public information work for a nonprofit and it comes up occasionally. I also hate "tasked" but I'm afraid I'm losing that battle, it's everywhere now.


So task is a verb and ask is a noun. Let's call a meeting to task the ask.


But, what's the ask? I'm just spit balling here, but we need a work around because this isn't in line with our mission statement. Let's have an all hands meeting in the conference room and we can whiteboard some ideas and work out some best practices.


I might as well mention that I have a deliverable and then a desk side meeting with a colleague, but maybe some of us could meet as a breakout group?


What about action items? Both of you forgot action items!


I recognize that you have some valuable input, so thank you for sharing. We can whiteboard our action items, unless you'd prefer to talk about this desk side. Let's interface soon so we can highlight these action items. It might be difficult to do a work around, but let's see how things shake out. Let's regroup before COB and revisit the ask.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2014 22:50     Subject: Re:Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I hate this too! I used to be a journalist and never had to deal with this kind of silly corporate-speak. Now I do public information work for a nonprofit and it comes up occasionally. I also hate "tasked" but I'm afraid I'm losing that battle, it's everywhere now.


So task is a verb and ask is a noun. Let's call a meeting to task the ask.


But, what's the ask? I'm just spit balling here, but we need a work around because this isn't in line with our mission statement. Let's have an all hands meeting in the conference room and we can whiteboard some ideas and work out some best practices.


I might as well mention that I have a deliverable and then a desk side meeting with a colleague, but maybe some of us could meet as a breakout group?


What about action items? Both of you forgot action items!
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2014 15:51     Subject: Re:Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
I can see why "the ask" annoys you. I get annoyed by this kind of thing, too, and I'm not even a lawyer.

Remember when "impact" was largely a singular noun? Now, we've got the Weather Channel describing the "impacts" of storms.

Remember when "impacted" was an adjective that described wisdom teeth? Now, we've got people being "impacted" by all kinds of things.

Guess this is what keeps the English language from going the way of Latin.

Anonymous
Post 09/28/2014 14:48     Subject: Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
Deliverables are the best!
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2014 11:51     Subject: Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
Let's step outside of our silos and think outside the box to innovate some cascading synergies.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2014 11:46     Subject: Re:Any other lawyers sick pf people using "ask" as a noun?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I hate this too! I used to be a journalist and never had to deal with this kind of silly corporate-speak. Now I do public information work for a nonprofit and it comes up occasionally. I also hate "tasked" but I'm afraid I'm losing that battle, it's everywhere now.


So task is a verb and ask is a noun. Let's call a meeting to task the ask.


But, what's the ask? I'm just spit balling here, but we need a work around because this isn't in line with our mission statement. Let's have an all hands meeting in the conference room and we can whiteboard some ideas and work out some best practices.


I might as well mention that I have a deliverable and then a desk side meeting with a colleague, but maybe some of us could meet as a breakout group?