Students at the University of Washington were offered a new course last month, entitled Calling Bullshit In the Age of Big Data. For the past couple of decades, week in and week out, I have been calling bullshit for this publication, and so was delighted to hear my favourite pastime had made it into academia.

While this course is limited to spotting bullshit in numbers, there is an equal need for one spotting it in words, especially words used in business. What follows is an outline for a rival course aimed to fill that gap.

It starts with a definition: bullshit means nonsense, usually of a puffed-up variety that pretends to be something it is not. Sharp eyes will spot at once the difficulty in applying this to corporate life — almost everything fits the description. Before I have even got inside my office I have tripped over a yellow plastic sign saying “Caution Wet Floor” — bullshit because usually the floor is not wet, and if it were, the picture of someone falling spectacularly is wildly overdoing it.