Avoid gobbledygook

In the G.B.C. exam you want your answers to be clear and understandable. This is why you must avoid gobbledygook.

What is gobbledygook you ask?

David Meerman Scott’s groundbreaking, industry-standard, must-have handbook provides some user-friendly examples of gobbledygook:

• Groundbreaking
• Industry-standard
• Cutting-edge
• Flexible
• Scalable
• Market-leading
• Well positioned
• Thinking outside the box
• Value added
• Best practice
• For all intents and purposes
• Touch base
• Integrating quality solutions
• Promoting an informed and synergistic teams
• Strategically engaging departments, and so on…

The list is endless. We are all guilt of using gobbledygook in our speech and writing. These buzz words make us sound like an expert, right?

Wrong!

What you’re really doing is confusing your listener and sounding like a showoff.

So, here’s what you need to do:

Have a plan.

If you want to avoid meaningless phrases and words in the G.B.C. exam, make sure you have a plan for your answers. The English Vanguard G.B.C. eBooks provide mind-maps for each model G.B.C. answer. These mind-maps will help you deliver G.B.C. answers that the listener can understand and follow. No more listener confusion (a common G.B.C. examiner complaint).

Be specific.

What exactly is the meaning of value added, best practice, well-positioned? If you don’t know, trust me, you listener will not know either. This is why you need to give examples, tell a story, show don’t tell. Give specific examples of what value, best practice, well-positioned look like. Help the listener to visualize what you mean.

Keep tabs on yourself.

The English Vanguard automated G.B.C. interview creates a report on how often you repeat words. This report helps you keep track of your word choice. Repetition of words and a lack of variety of expressions are common G.B.C. examiner complaints. Therefore, together with our AI, our language instructors can give you the feedback you need to improve your G.B.C. score.

Sign up for automated interviews and one-on-one lessons. We’ll help you improve your G.B.C. score.