Wikipedia defines“peacock terms” as words that sound nice but don’t help the reader understandthe topic.

The male peacock uses his colorful tail to attract a mate. But the weight and size of the feathers make it hard for him to fly.

These things sound nice but they don’t help the reader understand any new information. After reading them, we still do not understand why the author wrote

these statements.

Peacock term:

Adobe Photoshop is an amazing program, more

popular than all other graphics suites.

Better:

Adobe Photoshop is the most popular photo editing suite, with 60% of the market share. Users prefer it over GIMP because it includes features like built-in support for RAW images and LAB colorspace workflow integrated into the GUI.

Peacock term:

FPT University is one of the best software

engineering schools in Vietnam.

Better:FPT University attracts hundreds of new students each semester because it promises to teach every student the skills required by major Vietnamese software companies so that they can easily find good jobs after graduation.

Hans Anderson 2007-Present: Lecturer at FPT Greenwich

Programmes, FPT University. 2007: M.S., Computational

Mathematics, University of Minnesota 2001: B.A., Computer Science, Gustavus

Adolphus College, Saint Peter, MN