Published August 2024, updated November 2025–Word puking gets in the way of better business writing because it says nothing and wastes time.
As the amount of information inundating us daily continues to increase and our ability to pay attention to it continues to decrease, it becomes ever more important to communicate well…if we want to communicate at all.
Yet I continue to see countless examples of what I call word puking. What is word puking, you ask? Writing with lots of words but zero intention of actually communicating with the reader.
How word puking is the opposite of better business writing
Here’s an example of word puking from a restaurant website:
Discover culinary perfection at JohnSmith in Miami, a top-ranked restaurant celebrated for its artful blend of French gastronomy and contemporary flair. With Chef John Smith’s innovative creations and an ambiance of refined luxury, this culinary destination promises an unforgettable dining experience at the pinnacle of gourmet indulgence.
Now, if I wanted to teach you how to say nothing, I would use this blurb as an example. Because speaking of pinnacles, this is the pinnacle of word puking.
Does it sound good? Sure! I’m sure when the copywriter put that in front of the marketing team, the team glowed with pleasure! “Look at all those fancy words,” they swooned. But let’s break this down and see if it actually communicates…
Is this really marketing? Hardly!
Does this blurb tell us anything about the food at this restaurant? Nope.
Honestly, I have no idea what you get when you combine French gastronomy with contemporary flair, especially when you consider that the definition of gastronomy is simply “the practice or art of choosing, cooking, and eating good food.” So how is that not contemporary?
And what is contemporary flair anyway?
It’s innovative? Okaaaaayyy… meaning what?
It’s the pinnacle of gourmet indulgence? What does that even mean?
I could go on, but it’s already obvious to you how annoyed I am by this baloney, I’m sure. (Insert facepalm emoji here.)
This bunch of words is just taking up space. It’s not communicating at all.
And that’s just wrong.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “Either writer something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
This is not worth reading. It is simply a classic example of word puking.
Word puking from a marketer’s perspective
From a marketing and copywriting standpoint, if we’re word puking and thinking it’s going to get our prospect’s attention, our prospects will likely have an attitude like A Great Big World’s song Say Something, I’m Giving up on You. And what’s that? They’ll give up on us and they’ll click away in search of a business that tries.
Word puking when writing at work
From a business writing standpoint, if we’re word puking, we are wasting our reader’s time and possibly slowing down a project, costing more money, causing confusion, or preventing collaboration.
2 easy ways to ensure better business writing (not word puking)
And now perhaps you’re asking, “Okay, Sharon. So how do I avoid word puking?”
I’m glad you asked! And obviously you care about better business writing, or you wouldn’t be reading this.
In fact, I bet you’d never word puke. Just the fact that you’re here right now tells me this.
But…and it’s a big but…that doesn’t mean we can’t all use a reminder to write with care, whether for work or for sales. So here are two easy ways to avoid word puking:
1) The easiest way to avoid saying nothing is to be clear what you want to communicate!
2) Then, read what you wrote before you send it out into the world to make sure it makes sense.
That’s it. Just those two steps will save you from looking stupid, and will ensure you’re actually communicating with your words. (Of course, you can also get more tips on business writing for even more ways to improve.)
But wait, there’s more: Putting words into a blender can be an ineffective as word puking…
Sometimes it’s not puking, but putting words into a blender
Do you remember the song Inside Out by Eve 6 from a few years back? It was playing over the sound system at the grocery store last week and I’ve had it stuck in my head ever since, especially the line about putting “my tender heart into a blender, watch it spin around to a beautiful oblivion.”
Sometimes writers seem to put their words into a blender and watch them spin around into a not-so-beautiful oblivion. And, sad to say, the higher up the corporate food chain, the more likely this mess of words tends to be.
I say this because I recently helped a CEO tame a wild beast of an article, taking it from 2,400 words to 1,600. The experience offers an important for all of us who are writing at and for work.
More does not mean more
That lesson? Writing more words does not necessarily lead to better communication. In this case, the 2,400-word article meandered all over the place. The hypothesis made sense, but a reader got lost trying to follow the argument supporting the hypothesis because, well, because one couldn’t.
With a rewrite, the article was restructured to have a logical flow and to build the case in a way that’s easy for the reader to follow, like leading them down a path. And obviously we had much to leave out that didn’t help make the argument, since we removed 800 words. Much of that editing involved removing repetitive information. We didn’t have to repeat anything once we had a flow.
Which takes us back to the lesson: more words do not equal more convincing.
Instead, the kind of more we are after looks like this: a thought-leadership piece more likely to be read because it’s two-thirds the length, with a more compelling argument that’s more likely to convince the reader.
Saving time or waste of time?
I suspect busy managers and executives rush through their writing at work because of lack of time. But here’s the question: Are they saving time or wasting time? If someone spends 2 hours writing something that no one reads, isn’t that 2 hours wasted?
On the other hand, if one writes for 2 hours, then revises for 30 minutes, and that means the piece is read and the argument is made, then the 2 hours of writing are not wasted but time well spent…as is the half hour spent revising. And that is better business writing!
Too much time is wasted on ineffective writing at work. We can stop wasting time if we invest a little more of that precious commodity to write something worth reading.
Did your words go through a blender?
What if you are working on a longer document, or you’re helping someone with one, and you aren’t sure how to bring clarity to it? What are some ways to conquer your own wild beast and write a convincing piece, not a piece of oblivion? Here are some tips to help (beyond taking the time to revise, that is):
- Be clear on your goal. You have to know what it is you’re trying to accomplish before you can write clearly. What is the takeaway you want your reader to have? Be crystal clear on that.
- Use an outline. I can hear you groaning from here, but hang on. This isn’t some boring exercise from high-school English. It’s a tried-and-true technique that you should be using in your writing at work. If you’re not sure how to outline (because high-school English was either too boring or too long ago), see the tips here. You can also “outline” after you write by figuring out what each paragraph is about and then reordering them.
- Take a break so you can read your writing at work with fresh eyes. A good rule of thumb? The longer the document, the longer the break before you re-read it. A 2,400 word article is going to need more than a lunch break to give you a fresh perspective when re-reading it.
More ways to learn better business writing
For more tips on better business writing, take one of my online business writing courses. You might be surprised at how easy it is to level up your writing at work!
Taking one or more of these online business writing courses will help you improve your workplace writing, whether you write as part of your job (and who doesn’t?) or for sales and marketing. The classes are short and engaging. Topics covered include proofreading, persuasive writing, business writing, emails and self-editing. Each class is designed to be fast-paced with lessons you can put to use that same day. They are also affordable, and some are free.
I create each one of these classes from the perspective of a marketing writer, applying lessons I learned over 20+ years of freelancing to writing at work. This isn’t your high school grammar class with boring, dry content. Instead, these classes are practical and applicable. I challenge you to take a class and not learn something new!
Photo of clock by Clarissa Schwarz: https://www.pexels.com/photo/broken-watch-on-a-moss-covered-ground-12501261/
Photo of blender by Chait Goli: https://www.pexels.com/photo/womna-pouring-powder-on-the-blender-1797103/