My teacher circled "proactive" in my paper. He says it's too trendy and I should find another word. Can you give me a good argument to throw back at him? —Pro Proactive
Dear PP,
Yes. And it comes, once again, from Garner. Had I not read Garner's justification for the word, I would have agreed with your teacher. I think one reason people don't like the word is because it was born in the towers of psycho-babble and bounced into the mumbo-lingo of corporate America and then onto the encrusted literary palettes of news commentators who have a tendency to speak in platitudinous circles (they don't realize it, but everyone else does).
Garner, however, says the word is "useful as an antonym of reactive." I'm afraid he's right.
Ask your teacher to come up for a synonym for proactive; the only adjective that comes close is "take-charge," as in, "He's a take-charge kind of guy." But, "take-charge" is also a relative neologism, which just about pushes it to into the field of trendiness.
My condolences to your teacher.
1 comment:
Sorry, but I must quibble over "proactive." People misuse this ugly word as the opposite of "reactive," when "pro" actually makes it "in support of being active," which is nice, but a largely narrow, useless term. I'm a business editor, and grind my teeth a great deal over seeing it.
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