Political Correct Communication

Examining The Concept of Politically Correct Speech "Let 's be politically correct about this " This is a common statement people make when they want to avoid offending people . This is the goal of the concept of being politically correct : avoid offending people 's sensibilities . Case in point , it is not uncommon to call blind people "visually impaired " The reason for this is that somehow the word "blind " became derogatory . Well , actually it didn 't and neither did a number of benign words but in the 1990 's there was a movement that started with the

clear intention of making words as antiseptic as possible . The movement was somewhat mocked at first and pop culture comedian George Carlin quipped "It is just a means of people hiding their guilt without really atoning for their sins " But , the politically movement has far from gone away . In fact , it has gained significant momentum in certain quarters . This is good in some ways and negative in others

One of the most negative aspects of the political correctness movement is that perpetually trying to be politically correct has a tendency to hinder communications . That is , when people are always trying to choose their words or phrases carefully they may find the end result to be stilted . That is to say , the words they select in their writing or oral presentations may end up being silly . Again , most people assume a blind person is blind . If one refers to a blind person as "optically challenged " then one may discover the audience laughing at the choice of words . This is because it is obvious the individual is going really out of the way to avoid hurting anyone 's feelings . Granted , this end result may avoid offense but it could also yield laughter . If that was not the intended result of your actions then the actions would be deemed a flop Sorry to be so blunt but this is the common end result of going to ridiculous extremes in be politically correct at the expense of using "good " language

There are , however , some benefits to politically correct speech . This is most evident in the workplace . Remember when it comes to success in the workplace success will often be based around relationships with people . If your relationships with others are not as best as they can be then you may discover your career suffering . This would obviously be a bad situation and best avoided . Since one of the most common ways of developing bad relationships is through offending people seeking to be more politically correct in your dialogue would not be a bad idea

If you are involved in the insurance sales business there will be a multitude of people whom you will come in contact . As such , you would want these people to feel as comfortable as possible and opt to avoid using words that may prove offensive . For example , you would want to avoid calling the elderly "old " if you come in contact with such individuals...