BMJ 2002;325:1436 ( 21 December )

Editorials

The joy of banning

Over 200 readers joined the BMJ 's exercise on banning words

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Just over a month ago we asked readers to suggest words that should be banned for Christmas.1 The response was immediate and overwhelming. At the time of going to press there were 212 responses on bmj.com, and they are still coming. Having gathered your suggestions, we held a vote. The table shows the top 10 words that readers want to ban together with our response. The full vote and all the rapid responses can be seen at http://bmj.com/misc/ban_a_word.shtml.


Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

The exercise was a game and might be compared to free association of words. It illustrates what is on readers' minds and allows them to expose prejudices in a politically correct way. The diverse responses in the collection come from at least 14 countries and dozens of different perspectives. Many of you agreed that it was fun---but there's plenty of irritation, anger, and prejudice in there too. A few even took the . . . [Full text of this article]
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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Late entries for 'mounting' and 'flawed'?
Ed Cooper
bmj.com, 20 Dec 2002 [Full text]
Alternatives are In
Ron Law
bmj.com, 21 Dec 2002 [Full text]
The joy of banning: another candidate.
Alexander SD Spiers
bmj.com, 15 Jan 2003 [Full text]
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