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Good Communication tip #112:

If you want to be a Great Conversationalist, whatever you do don’t use the word “whatever.”

Wire reports say it topped a US survey as the most annoying word.

The Marist telephone poll of 938 adults revealed it was more grating than “anyway” and less tolerable than phrases such as “it is what it is” and “you know.”

Mary Azzoli, director of media for Marist says: “The impetus of this poll was a casual conversation where we started discussing those words that get on your nerves. You hear them over and over again,”

Nearly 50 percent of people questioned said “whatever” was the word that bothered them the most. It was the most irritating word in all regions of the country, and among both sexes, all age groups, educational levels and income brackets.

“It is used so often in terms of casual conversation. Also, when you think of the meaning behind it, it is often a way to dismiss someone. It is irritating in that regard. It is much more off-putting compared to any of the other statement we asked,” she added.

A quarter of people selected “you know” as the phrase they would like to ban most from the English language. Eleven percent simply could not tolerate “it is what it is,” while seven percent found “anyway” irksome.

And at the end of the day, “at the end of the day” was the phrase that came in a distant last with two percent of the vote.

“In order to be a good conversationalist, the key is to always be aware of what you are saying and maybe to do a little research about which words are overused,” Azzoli added.
Anyway, whatever, you know….

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Prize-wise…..

A record five women won Nobel prizes this year, beating the previous record of three, with North American Elinor Ostrom becoming the first woman to win the Economics Prize.

Americans cemented their domination of the Nobel prizes in 2009 with a record 11 of the 13 laureates lauded this year coming from the United States. It’s claimed to be a sign of its rather well-funded research universities.

A lesson for us all perhaps.

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In other online news….

British pay-TV giant BSkyB will launch an online music service next week, offering consumers access to more than four million tracks, rivalling Apple’s iTunes.

Sky Songs, which is paid for with a monthly fee, will offer users songs for download and for advert-free streaming — which allows unlimited listening to thousands of albums on computers via the web, BSkyB said in a statement.

The service, to be launched on October 19, will offer new releases and back catalogues from major music labels including EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, and a large range of independent labels.