John Rentoul has revised and updated his ‘Banned List’ of overused phrases – typically by journalists – and it is well worth a read by writers of all kinds. It continues to warn against the criminal practice of turning nouns into verbs (action, disconnect, leverage, storyline, among others), as well as irritating, incomprehensible acronyms (IMO, IMHO, LOL, ROFL and so on) and tired phrases (learning curve, raising awareness, celebrating diversity).

Following Rentoul’s efforts, Journalisted has turned its expert counters of all things journalistic to 2010’s most overused phrases.

Writers of all kinds, beware.

• Learning curve: 771 articles
• Way beyond: 746 articles
• A no-brainer: 651 articles
• Game changer: 524 articles
• Perfect storm: 520 articles
• Raising awareness: 405 articles
• Elephant in the room: 353 articles
• Not fit for purpose: 327 articles
• Out of the box: 229 articles
• What’s not to like?: 206 articles

Full Journalisted Yearly round-up at this link…