Err...So What!

I do so wish a few more people could start a few more sentences with the word 'so'. It's such a useful pointer to help me know when to listen to an erudite opinion.

But I admit that I do miss in verbalised conversational speech, the much maligned and much loved word 'errr'. 

'Errr' showed a certain sensitivity and self-doubt. It had a dash of humility and possibility. It showed engagement and interest, expressed concern, and thoughtfulness. It wondered at the differences between opinions and humanities. And it provided a low humming baseline to accompany a life in conversation.

'So' however, rips into that.

It cuts through the nonsense.

It present the conclusion to the debate. It ends. It pronounces. It judges. It labels. 

It links when there's nothing to link but it makes you think there is, that you missed something. 

It's a trick. A lie.

And now because you said 'so' and not 'no',  it's creeping into written speech.

Now we have two cancers of communication. 

It started with the arm-waving, propagated by BBC news reporters, going to far too many workshops and delivering their communications bimanually by manual. Now it has metastasised into our choice of words, starting sentences with an obnoxious "listen to me". It's hard to find a radio interview that 'so' does not dominate. 

It's like listening to a group of potty-training two-year-olds.

When I learnt Latin as a schoolboy 'so' and 'therefore' were synonyms, equally translated from the word 'ergo'.

So when I advise on this (ahem), usually I suggest intra-mental substitution of the word 'so' with 'therefore'. If it sounds wrong with the substitution in place, then it probably is.  

You're welcome.

Introducing a topic or even answering a question with the utterly redundant word 'so' is painful. It's become a curse of the last few years.  

You wouldn't find Frank, the new Pope, being so sloppy. (He is still heavily into ergo).

And he has his work cut out for him deciding whether he should persuade the rest of the Argies not to invade the Falklands again. Or tell them that they'll have God on their side this time.

Join the fight.  I will be running workshops from mid-June onwards.

Where will they be based?

So...Er-Google it.