A discussion about business and marketing communications (or marcom).

My formal background is in Radio/Television Communications and when I was training to become a broadcaster, we were taught to eliminate words or should I say sounds that meant nothing and sound bad.  The words or sounds like “Uh” and “Um” and “You know” are all now meaningful acceptable words and not forbidden sounds that make us sound unprofessional and like we don’t know what we’re talking about.  There is a new meaning of communication using these words.  For instance, “Uh” and “Um.”  According to the authors of an article in the peer-reviewed journal Cognition, we use these to signal a delay in speaking.  “Uh” tells the other person that we haven’t stopped speaking, and that we’re pausing briefly.  “Um” alerts the other person to a longer pause.  Using either word tells the other person not to start speaking yet because we haven’t finished.