Comment by gerbilly
6 years ago
The further I get down your list of alternative phrasings, the worse the writing gets.
This is corporate speak and it's regrettably taking over the world.
I do agree with your final paragraph. Telling people privately sidesteps all the newspeak entirely.
What is distasteful in corporate speak is its use of inflated words to hide the lack of honesty and humanity.
What the GP points out is intentional phrasing to express no more and no less than what is desired. That it happens to sound formulaic is less of an issue than conveying the wrong meaning.
When you use passive voice, you are obscuring who performed the action.
This is one of the hallmarks of corporate speak ("Mistakes were made.") It is bloodless and takes the people out of the picture. Business is a human activity.
There are other more human ways to express the same message ("You might not have thought of it, but ssh might be a good option here." or "Maybe there's a reason it wouldn't work, but perhaps ssh might be easier?")
Language shouldn't become the victim of our distorted corporate culture. We can speak plainly and still be respectful.