Strunk and White’s Elements of Style (originally published in 1918) identifies clear guidelines and recommendations for clear writing. They also have a list of commonly misused words and expressions. At the top of the list:

-ize. Do not coin verbs by adding this tempting suffix. Many good and useful verbs do end in -ize: summarize, fraternize, harmonize, fertilize. But there is a growing list of abominations: containerize, prioritize, finalize, to name three. Be suspicious of -ize; let your ear and your eye guide you. Never tack -ize onto a noun to create a verb. Usually you will discover that a useful verb already exists. Why say “utilize” when there is the simple, unpretentious word use?

More and more of these ‘-ize’ terms are constantly being added to the modern business lexicon. Perhaps they were created as a catchier, more intelligent technique to state the obvious…

Here are five common terms that overused and some suggestions on replacement terms.

Finalize

‘Finalize’ is one of the most commonly used fake terms. “We can finalize the deal only after both teams agree on the scope.” Also: finalizing, finalization.

• Use instead: ‘Complete’: We will complete the requirements document only after expectations have been defined.”

Strategize

How many times have you heard this one in meetings? “The team needs to meet so we can strategize the elements of the project.”

• Use instead: ‘Assess’ or ‘Define’: “The design team met to assess the creative approach.”

Conceptualize

Somewhat similar to “strategize”, this term is frequently used as an element of the creative process. It’s an ugly word with a number of simpler options. “After the wireframes are completed the designers will conceptualize the creative approach.”

• Use instead: ‘Plan’ or ‘Address’: “The creative director used mood boards and case studies to plan the design strategy.

Templatize

This is an awful term that indicates that something is converted from custom to repeatable. “We can save time if we templatize all the pages.”

• Use instead: ‘replicate’: “The information architecture needed to replicate the structure to maintain consistency.”

Incentivize

A truly cringe-worthy term. “Free water bottles should be enough to incentivize users to fill out the survey.”

• Use instead: ‘motivate’ (or simply ‘incent’): “We can motivate employees if we offer additional personal days.”

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There is no shortage of articles lamenting on how tools like PowerPoint have done more harm than good. In my opinion, PowerPoint is not the problem—it’s just a means to an end. The real dilemma is that the “slides” and “presentation” have essentially become the same things.

Your presentation is not your slides. Slides are visual aids meant to emphasize and support your oral arguments. The audience is listening and reacting to your words, not to your laptop. A disconnect has now evolved—presenters now spend the bulk of their energy focusing on the production of their slides and minimal effort on the actual delivery of their presentation. How many presentations have you sat through where the presenter simply read from their slides word for word?

While I am certainly guilty of falling into the PowerPoint trap, I’ve learned a few techniques that can help break the habit. Preparation is critical.

Here are three prep techniques that require you to step away from PowerPoint (for at least a little bit) and can be used to develop compelling presentations.

Write the story

There is an art to effective presentations, and it has nothing to do with slide templates or diagrams—the art is the story you tell. Like any story, a presentation must have meaning. The best stories have an intriguing opening that captures attention, a logical progression, and a killer conclusion. When planning your presentation, take the time to think about the story your telling and what it is about it that will keep the audience interested and engaged.

Instead of organizing your presentation around slides, think about it as chapters in a story. Sales presentations are a great example. There is a formulaic approach—features, benefits, examples. Instead of thinking about that way, try to tell the story of the software: how did it help in a particular instance? Channel Steve Jobs. When he introduces new products, it’s never all about the functions – it’s the story of the product in context to how it can make your life better. Think about this approach and then build the slides to support it.

Treat your presentations as stories and narratives. Stories are far more compelling than lectures.

Do your homework

I recently attended a presentation by a search marketing company pitching its services to a biotech that develops software for managing clinical trials. The presentation went along swimmingly—the firm confidently presented their capabilities and experience, and seemed to know their stuff…until one of the audience members asked a question about their thoughts about the clinical trial process. I was dumfounded when the presenter asked, “What’s a clinical trial?”

End of presentation.

Regardless of how good your presentation is, if you fail to do the necessary research you are simply shooting yourself in the foot. Take the time to learn about your audience’s industry, their competitors, and their needs (both real and assumed). Granted, you cannot expect to know everything about your audience but knowing enough that you can confidently speak their language goes a long way. It also shows that you are committed and took the time to understand their business.

Remember, your audience needs to more than your inherent skills and competencies—they want to know that you have smarts to apply your abilities to their business needs.

Get some sleep

Presentations are often completed at 3:00AM the night before the big meeting (”I have to get my slide builds just right…”). Good work requires time and it often takes up to the last minute to get everything done. Regardless, it is just as important to show up to presentation rested and energized. Looking haggard does not translate as “hard working” to your audience—it makes you appear disorganized and unprepared—usually not traits audiences respond to.

So instead of pulling an all-nighter hovering over your slides, get a good night’s sleep, eat a good meal, and try to relax. Doing so will improve your ability to present much more so those extra five case studies that you worked on until sunrise.

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The New York Times Online recently launched a neat online tool – The TimesMachine – that lets you browse their issue archive stretching back to the 1850s. You can see the newspaper layouts in their original format (something Google news doesn’t offer).

I did a look-up of October 25, 1872 – one hundred years before I was born. It doesn’t seem like too much was going on outside of the Horace Greeley campaign, although it’s hard to tell because there are no real headlines! I suppose the headline is an invention of the modern newspaper…

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Woody Allen said, “Most of the time I don’t have much fun. The rest of the time I don’t have any fun at all.” That’s how I feel about 2007. It was a tough year, mostly defined by long work hours, business trips, and tough decision but…as a whole, turned out to be an exceptionally positive year with lots of both professional and personal growth.

Not being one to ruminate, my year in review is presented in list format…

Work Highlights:

• Growth, growth, growth…RDVO grows by nearly 40% (for the third year in a row).
• New people. We were able to attract and retain some great new team members in ‘07. The company nearly doubled in size and only one person left the company in 2007.
• Great work. We had a number of awesome website and product launches in 2007. Our work for MBTA.com was recognized as one of top websites of 2007. RDVO did some innovative work for Microsoft and Oxfam America.
• New services and focus. We grew our research and strategy capabilities and team. I believe this is a critical piece of RDVO’s future success (and our industry in general). In 2008 we plan to continue to grow in the area and plan to establish the company as a leader in this area.
• Awards. RDVO won more awards than any year in our history. We won a Webby for the MBTA website, as well MITX Awards for MBTA, Gillette Young Guns, and PHT Corporation. We also took part in Microsoft’s Phizzpop challenge and were nominated for a technology award at South by Southwest.

Life Highlights:

• New home. I bought a new place in Boston’ South End, housing market be damned! I moved into a parlor level on Union Park. The move was generally painless although actually “moving in” has taken much more time and energy than I thought. Should there still be boxes laying around six months after the move? 2008 will be marked by home improvements, including new kitchen, bathroom, and a number of other small projects…
• Traveling man. I spend well over a month on the road this year. Most of the travel was work-related, with a number of trips to Seattle. Ilisa and I took a nice (albeit short) vacation to Mexico. I also had visits to New York, Chicago, Austin, and San Francisco. Numerous frequent flyer miles were obtained!
• Red Sox. Saw one of the playoff games in their historic championship run!

I also saw a number of great movies, dined at a few great restaurants, and read some wonderful books. Here’s my quick “best of 2008″ list.

• Best Meal – a toss-up this year. I had an amazing meal at Café Juanita in Seattle while traveling on business. In Boston, the best meal I had was the amazing Ribeye at Boston’s new Ruth’s Chris steakhouse. Yeah, yeah – Ruth’s Chris is a big chain, but I’m not embarrassed—I was generally underwhelmed by Boston restaurants. Two new restaurants in my neighborhood – Gaslight and Rocca were both extremely disappointing.
• Best Movie – I can’t recall a year where I saw fewer movies than in 2007. I was blow away by No Country for Old Men, which was definitely my movie-going highlight of the year. I also enjoyed Eastern Promises and Ratatouille.
• Best Book – I read a number of books this year, but nothing really stuck with me. I enjoyed Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. I also re-read a couple of classics, including I, Claudius, Ragtime, and The Autobiography of Ben Franklin. Most entertaining, however, was Edmund Morris’s Theodore Roosevelt biographies, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex. America could certainly use Roosevelt today!

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I was reading a report that predicted that online advertising will hit $44.6 billion in 2008, approximately 10% of total advertising spending. At these numbers, online ad spend will overtake radio this year and magazines in 2010.

All in all, online advertising increased 25% this year and has nearly doubled in two years—all without the Olympics or election year traffic that we’ll experience in 2008. 25% growth may be a conservative estimate. My first prediction is an easy one: it’s going to be a huge year for online advertising.

Increased online advertising spend clearly trickles down to the search engine marketing firms and consultants. Someone has to help companies effectively spend their money.

2. Search engine marketers get more credibility

Look for search marketing to grow as a field in 2008. SEM and paid search firms have traditionally been looked down upon by the more established online marketing disciplines. However, as organic positions become even harder to obtain, companies are going to be looking to paid search to maintain competitiveness and ensure their brand is positioned. The process of planning, creating, and managing paid search campaigns will likely become even more complex and competitive, putting search marketers into high demand.

Search marketing should grow in prominence in 2008 and firms that offer those services should have a great year. Traditional advertising agencies and digital firms who haven’t branched out may get a rude awakening in the coming months.

3. Better tools and applications

In 2008 we will see better tools, applications, and platforms that will improve the ad management experience for both large-scale SEMs and small, individual advertisers. Look for more desktop tools like Adwords Editor or helpful Excel add-ons that make it easier to plan and manage campaigns. Users will continue to find the online applications slow and limiting. There will be some major advances in tools that will be readily embraced by online advertisers and may—over time—help to demystify the process.

4. We begin to see the benefits of the Google/DoubleClick and Microsoft/Aquantive acquisitions

These acquisitions were big news this year. It will be interesting and exciting to see how Google and Microsoft integrate them into their offering. For Google, DoubleClick gives them a huge boost in their traditionally weakest area: display ads. The marriage of DoubleClick’s ad-serving platform and Google’s targeting engine could help Google dominate in an area they’ve struggled with in the past.

The tangible benefits of Microsoft’s purchase of aQuantive are a bit harder to pin down. aQuantive arms Microsoft with a number of new tools, clients, and expertise that may help the company continue to grow its online advertising division. Traffic and search volume may the most immediate benefit of the buy; now Microsoft has a global offering and ad platform. aQuantive may give Microsoft enough leverage to overtake Yahoo as the number two online ad platform.

5. Google loses some marketshare

Google is clearly the dominant player in the paid search market, locking up nearly 90% of the market. 2007 saw a few chinks in the market, however, and it’s feasible that Google could lose some marketshare in 2008. For one, Google has become increasingly more expensive. Cost of keywords has amplified along with competition. Small advertisers can no longer hope to compete with large companies for top placements. Faced with growing costs and competition, more advertisers will begin to look to other platforms and providers. It is still relatively inexpensive to advertise at Yahoo.com or Microsoft’s sites. Microsoft should get a nice traffic boost based on its recent Facebook deal.

It should be an interesting, banner year for online marketing…

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