The 40 tells · Words · No. 21
Why "revolutionize" makes writing sound machine-made
Flagged "Revolutionize"
"Revolutionize", "transform" and "reimagined" promise the biggest possible change for the smallest possible product. A notes app that "revolutionizes how you think" is still a notes app.
A headline in the form "Thing, reimagined" is especially common. It means something changed, and it doesn't say what.
Before
Email, reimagined. A revolutionary way to transform your inbox.
After
An inbox that shows only messages from people you've written to before. Everything else waits in one daily summary.
The fix
Swap it for the concrete thing. What does it do, in words a buyer can check?
Write this instead
- say what changed
- the one feature that's different
- improve, change, rebuild
What the checker matches
Any of these, in any case:
- revolutionize
- revolutionizes
- revolutionise
- revolutionary
- transformative
- transform
- transforms
- reimagine
- reimagined
- reimagining