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A Point of View: Going Forward

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Tom Shakespeare

09/03/2018

Going Forward

BBC Radio 4 - A Point of View, Going Forward

Tom Shakespeare tells us why he detests the phrase 'going forward'.

Tom Shakespeare on why he believes the phrase 'going forward' should be removed from the English language.

Tom Shakespeare tells us why he believes the phrase "going forward" is an inelegant and negative replacement for "in future".

When you talk about the future, he says, you are using a temporal concept. It's a different time from now - the time to come - and "invites us to open out our imaginative space". It offers the possibility that things might be different. 

"Going forward", on the other hand, is a spatial concept - "nothing but the present, infinitely extended". 

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

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