Totally Missing The Point?

In a conversation, the best way of missing the point is to go around and around in circles and leave the main topic untouched.

This happens a lot in sentence construction, too. You can Lift Your Language by avoiding three common mistakes….

Missing the point: the stigma of lazy language

Writers are totally, and probably literally, missing the point when they talk about ‘the stigma surrounding . . .’ something.

You’ve probably read it many times, and might even have used it yourself. The problem is that a stigma doesn’t ‘surround’ anything.

A stigma is a mark, with a negative connotation. If there were a stigma ‘surrounding’ you, you’d be laughing. It would have missed you altogether and you’d be clean, free and clear.

Here’s an example to think about.

It’s time to end the stigma surrounding mental health.

There are quite a few things wrong here.

First, the word ‘surrounding’ has to be replaced. A better way to convey the idea would be to say the stigma associated with …

Second, you can’t really ‘end’ a stigma.

If you think of it as a synonym of ‘mark’ or ‘stain’, you might say ‘erase’, ‘remove’, or ‘wipe away’.

Third, as a side note, ‘health’ is the wrong word here, too. Without an additional adjective, such as ‘good’ or ‘poor’, the term ‘mental health’ is generally accepted, by default, to be a positive. No stigma in sight.

The original sentence suffers from illogical and lazy use of language. A far better way to express the idea would be:

It’s time to remove the stigma associated with mental illness.

Still missing the point: concentrate on the centre

Here’s another example – yet another case of missing the point:

The discussion centred around his difficulties.

Sorry, can’t be done! It would have to be centred on; ‘around’ is for circumferences — that is, going around in circles, which, admittedly, is what a lot of discussions do.

Any suggestion of a centre going ‘around’ anything, though, is a contradiction in terms.

Solutions:

  • The discussion centred on his difficulties, or
  • His difficulties were at the centre of the discussion.

Focus, focus!

The same applies to the word ‘focus’. Consider this common error:

Our project will focus around improvements in sales.

You can’t focus around anything, and even if you could, you’d certainly be missing the point, once again.

As with ‘centred’, the correct preposition to follow the word ‘focus’ is on.

Solutions:

  • Our project will focus on improvements in sales, or
  • Improvements in sales will be the focus (or focal point) of our project.

Rather than missing the point, try focusing on it and remove the stigma of lazy language use.

See more ways to Lift Your Language.