I doubt there is a writer alive who hasn’t been told to avoid jargon, acronyms, company speak. We’re all guilty of it as some point, myself included.

To help you avoid it in the future, take the photo from this post, and place it on your computer. It’s from Polly LaBarre, founding member of Fast Company and editorial director of MIX.

When you avoid these words, you will begin to speak “human.”

If you want to speak human, you must avoid:

• Buzzwords
• Acronyms
• Canned Biz Speak
• Abstract technical terminology, such as incentivize or right size
• Word barf
• Verbal detritus (think outside the box)

(Polly LaBarre slide)