“Between” is the correct word if you’re writing about two entities/nouns, e.g., “between you and me,” or “between a rock and a hard place,” or “Luxembourg is between France and Germany…”. If you’re writing about multiple entities or a group, then “among” is the correct word, e.g., “monkeys are swinging among the trees” or “the DevOps approach fosters collaboration among developers, IT staff, and healthcare providers.”

A nugget is a tidbit, often hyperlinked, that enlivens B2B copy. It’s something unexpected and often playful that surprises and engages the reader. Nuggets are key to a writer’s voice and they’re a neat way to signal that the writer is well-read.

Example 1:

Adaptability, short development cycles, regular feedback loops, speed, and continuous integration and delivery: As web-based applications took off, those were imperatives for companies to be competitive and successful.

Enter history’s only game-changing après ski, where the Agile Manifesto was drafted by a group of veteran developers. It was a declaration that celebrated twelve principles that upended the waterfall — and was a shot heard round the software world.

Example 2:

Pachama raised $55M in Series B funding in 2022, and among its 800+ clients are leading companies like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Airbnb. (Heads up: If you’re into orangutans, check out Pachama’s work in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan Peatlands, which are apparently capable of storing 20x more carbon than most forests.)

That’s my term (feel free to adopt it) for unnecessarily stringing together multiple verbs, e.g., “they were starting to think about going to the store.” Usually you can eliminate at least one of the verbs, e.g., “they considered going to the store.”

“Diminish” and “modernity.” Unfortunately I don’t have much opportunity to use the latter.

“Impactful” and “insightful.” They’re nothing-burger words: vague, meaningless, and boring. Use more precise words instead. Even “influential” is better.

Lots of people have an aversion to “moist,” but I don’t mind it. I like cake.

“Bespoke” is a pretty unfortunate word, too.

There are so many heinous options to choose from, but I think “move the needle” and “low-hanging fruit” win the prize. I’d also be perfectly happy if I never again saw the words “elevate” or “unlock” in the context of marketing.

I’ve also heard the term “optimizations” used for layoffs, which is just plain offensive.

I’ve got nothing against gerunds, I just think they’re a crutch and get overused because they offer an easy way out.

Often writers get into a groove where they’re just cranking stuff out — web pages, blog posts, whatever — and tacking on a clause that starts with a gerund, e.g., “Our software development teams dive deep into your business requirements, ensuring that their starting point is a comprehensive understanding of…”, is the easiest way to end the sentence. There’s nothing wrong with it, even if it’s boring.

But then before the writer knows it, they’re landing on boring-but-respectable in quick succession because it’s easy and because they’re not listening to what they’re writing and catching the repetition. I tell writers that they can get away with a gerund construction to end a sentence every 300 words minimum. (If I’m feeling sassy I’ll tell them they can use one only once every 500 words.)

I’m also not a fan of gerunds in heds or deks, e.g., “Transforming the insurance industry.” They’re tedious, inelegant, and lazy.