5 exercises — recognise when casual language hurts your professional image: "guys" in email, "basically" in presentations, "stuff" in docs, and more.
The register principle in IT communication
Slack message to a teammate → informal is fine
Team sprint recap email → semi-formal
Client proposal or presentation → formal
Technical documentation → formal and precise
Post-mortem or incident report → formal, factual, blameless
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
It is Monday morning. You are starting a team email to seven colleagues — three women, three men, and one non-binary person. You type: "Hi guys, here is the sprint recap for last week…" Why might some people object to this opening?
The "guys" question — formal/informal and inclusive language:
In American English, many speakers use "guys" as a generic plural ("you guys"). However, in professional written communication — especially in diverse or international teams — "guys" carries a masculine association for many readers. Some colleagues find it exclusionary.
Better alternatives in professional contexts:
"Hi team" → most common in corporate communication
"Hi everyone" / "Hello all" → neutral and warm
"Hi folks" → informal but gender-neutral
"Dear colleagues" → formal, written communication
Context matters: A casual Slack message in a well-established team is different from an email to a mixed-seniority group or clients. When in doubt, "Hi team" or "Hi everyone" is always safe.
Note: This is not about political correctness — it is about communicating in a way that includes everyone. Professional IT teams are global and diverse, and inclusive language is a basic courtesy.
2 / 5
You are presenting an architecture to a group of senior stakeholders. Your first slide says: "So, basically, what we've done here is split the monolith." What is the communication issue?
"Basically" — an overused filler that reduces your credibility:
"Basically" implies that what follows is a simplification — that you are reducing something complex to the essential point. In a sentence like "basically, we split the monolith," it can unintentionally make a significant architectural decision sound trivial.
The real problem: In high-stakes presentations, filler words like "basically," "like," "you know," "so yeah," and "literally" undermine your authority and make you sound unprepared.
Better options:
"In essence, what we did was…" — formal, confident
"In summary, the core change was…" — structured, professional
"The key architectural decision here was…" — direct, specific
Or just: "We split the monolith." — no filler at all, most powerful
Context: "Basically" is fine in casual technical conversation with your team. It sounds out of place in a formal presentation to leadership or clients.
3 / 5
A developer writes configuration documentation: "First, you'll need to install the stuff. Then configure the stuff so it connects to the stuff." What is the main problem with this sentence?
"Stuff" — the anti-precision word:
"Stuff" is a blanket informal English word meaning "things." In spoken conversation between colleagues, it is fine: "Let me handle all the DevOps stuff." But in written documentation, tutorials, or technical specifications, it fails because it is:
Vague: The reader does not know what "the stuff" is
Informal: Reduces the professional quality of your documentation
Unmaintainable: Future readers cannot search for "stuff" to find the relevant section
Replace "stuff" with the actual nouns:
"install the dependencies"
"configure the environment variables"
"set up the database connection string"
"add the required permissions"
Other similar vague words to avoid in documentation: "things," "it," "that," "those" (without a noun) — always specify what you mean.
4 / 5
You are writing a formal email to a client requesting a code review by end of week. You write: "Please review the attached proposal and respond ASAP." What is the problem with "ASAP" in this context?
ASAP — why it fails in professional communication:
The formality issue: "ASAP" is an acronym from informal speech. It appears in text messages and casual Slack messages. In a client-facing email or formal report, it signals informality and can feel slightly aggressive or careless.
The bigger problem — vagueness: "As soon as possible" means different things to different people. To you, it might mean "tomorrow morning." To the client, it might mean "within two weeks." A clear deadline removes ambiguity and respects the reader's time.
Better alternatives:
"Please respond by close of business Friday, 23 January." — gives an exact deadline
"We would appreciate your feedback by end of this week." — softer but still specific
"If possible, could you review this before our Thursday call?" — contextual and reasonable
Rule of thumb: In professional written communication, always prefer specific deadlines over urgency words like ASAP, urgent, immediately, or right away. Urgency language can create friction — dates create clarity.
5 / 5
A developer writes in a status report: "The architecture is very unique — there is nothing else like it in the industry." What is the issue with "very unique"?
"Very unique" — a classic absolute adjective error:
Absolute adjectives describe qualities that cannot logically have degrees — something either is or is not that thing. "Unique" means "one of a kind." Something is either unique (one of its kind) or it is not. You cannot be "very one of a kind" any more than you can be "very dead" or "slightly infinite."
"The architecture is truly unique." — "truly" = genuinely/really, acceptable with absolutes in modern usage
"The architecture is genuinely unique." — same principle
"This is a highly distinctive architecture." — avoids the issue entirely
"There is nothing comparable in the industry." — rephrase entirely
Practical note: In everyday speech, "very unique" is common, but in technical writing, reports, or documentation aimed at an educated audience, it looks careless. A technical writer would catch it.