Mea Culpa: alarming uptick in stock phrases

Questions of style and language in last week’s Independent, policed by John Rentoul

Roman Abramovich: is time trying to tell him something? (PA)

Papers on economics that had been edited by professional editors were judged by senior economists as being of higher academic quality than the same unedited papers, according to recent research at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. This should not be surprising. It ought to be obvious that a crisp, clear style will trick the reader into thinking that the substance of the writing is better.

Untick this box: And yet we still use the word “uptick” with alarming frequency. “GPs across the country have also reported increased Covid-linked demand as practices indicate they have seen an uptick in patients with symptoms,” we reported. Thanks to Linda Beeley for pointing it out. Presumably we wanted to avoid “increase” after “increased”, but we could have said “they have seen more patients with symptoms”.

Not imminently: We don’t use the phrase “any time soon” very often, but we do use it more often than is necessary, which is never. It is always used in the negative – such as “this is unlikely to get better any time soon” – and the only difference between it and plain “soon” is the cadence of casual American speech. Worse, I have noticed a couple of times recently when “any time” has been rendered as one word. I know this is merely a matter of taste, but that really is adding insult to injury.

Happily ever after: What the writer means is that the current situation is likely to persist, but they do not know for how long. It is not as bad as “only time will tell”, but nearly. We used “only time will tell” twice last week, once to say “only time will tell how much the pandemic will have changed our habits”, and another time to say: “Whether the sanctioning of Abramovich is just a piece of symbolism by a government seeking to look as strong as possible as Russia continue their onslaught, only time will tell.” When will we see the end of “only time will tell”? Not soon.

Clock the visuals: In a fascinating article about magic on TikTok, I was brought up short by this clunky sentence: “This format lends itself to fast-paced, visually appealing content.” I think “visually appealing” means it looks good, which isn’t telling us very much.

World king latest: In our report of the tension between Boris Johnson and Priti Patel over refugees, we said: “Downing Street is also understood to have reigned in a Home Office plan to allow the family members of Ukrainians on temporary visas enter the UK.” We meant “reined”, a horse-riding metaphor that is often confused with a different monarchical one. Thanks to Paul Edwards for spotting an old friend.