Concerted Effort

Ever hear someone say that he’s going to make a concerted effort to do something -- finish a project, make good on a New Year’s resolution, something like that?

Well, here’s an interesting fact about that term: Technically, one person can’t make a concerted effort. That’s because most definitions of concerted require more than one person to do it.

This is from Webster’s New World: Concerted: Planned or accomplished together; combined: "We made a concerted effort to solve the problem."

And here’s Merriam-Webster’s: Concerted: 1.  mutually contrived or agreed on: "a concerted effort"; 2.  performed in unison: "concerted artillery fire."

I’m omitting some of the definitions that have to do with music because they’re not what we’re talking about. But the very idea of a concert nonetheless illustrates what’s wrong with one person making a “concerted effort.” There’s no mutual contriving or agreeing. There’s no one to perform in unison with.

In the online version of the dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s has a little summary definition before the full definitions that says: “done in a planned and deliberate way usually by several or many people”

The word “usually” here provides you with the only possible loophole for using the term “concerted effort” to describe the actions of just one person. But it’s not necessarily a loophole you want to squeeze through.

So if you want to describe the effort of one person and you find “concerted effort” on the tip of your tongue, consider replacing “concerted” with “concentrated” or “deliberate” or “strenuous” or any other word that actually means what you want to say.

Tags: ADJECTIVES, GRAMMAR, WORD CHOICE, WORD USAGE

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2014 at 8:00 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.