Do we really need words like “decisioning”?
Writing for Business
Which is correct?
Business activity monitoring provides an immediate real-time monitoring and ____________ capability.
a. decisioning
b. decision-making
Answer: b.
Explanation:
The answer is b! IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, THE ANSWER IS B!
That’s all the explanation you need. You know what “decision-making” means. And “decisioning” is not a word.
I’m going to tell you a little secret … When I’m looking for sentences to use for these questions, I often just plug a word into Google along with “site:techtarget.com” to find instances of use across our sister sites — not usually looking for errors, just instances and context. I did that today, with “decisioning,” and was somewhat taken aback to find three pages of results. Ugh.
Just because all your business friends are verbing every noun they come across doesn’t mean it’s cool. “Decisioning” is not a word. Stop using it. Stop and think — you’ll generally find that “decision-making” or “deciding” will work just fine.
Matt Wilson wrote about “decisioning” and eight other completely pointless business words. Do read the article — if you can bear to.
Follow me on Twitter @tao_of_grammar
