"... captures the powerlessness and frustration we feel when confronted by meaningless words delivered with authority."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Watson makes an eloquent, elegant, and sometimes scathing case for taking back language from those who would strip it of all color and emotion and, therefore, of all meaning."--Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist

Do you ever leave work wondering whether all of the words exchanged between you and your colleagues in e-mails and meetings actually had any meaning？ You spend the day touching base and networking,workshopping and impacting, strategizing and implementing, going forward with your key performance indicators. No wonder you are exhausted when you leave the office！

Even as English spreads around the globe, the language itself is shrinking.Our vocabularies are increasingly trimmed of subtlety, and obscure words are forbidden unless they qualify as economic or business jargon. The constant pressure in our society to be efficient and productive is working like a noose around the neck of the English language.

Don Watson is one of Australia's foremost writers and intellectuals. In Death Sentences, he takes up the fight against the pestilence of bullet points, the scourge of buzzwords, and the dearth of verbs in public discourse. He encourages us to wage war against the personal mission statement and the PowerPoint essay and to take back our language from the corporate wordsmiths and marketeers.

Preface vii

Introduction xvii

CHAPTER 1.

The Dark and Impenetrable Thicket

CHAPTER 2.

Core Commitments Going Forward 39

CHAPTER 3.

The Post-Truth Environment 87

Conclusion 143

Glossary 151

Acknowledgments 169

Bibliography 171