The earlier arrival of the verb to impact, rather like that of Rosemary's baby, was a birth so diabolical as to herald an imminent and near-universal perdition. Today, finding an evaluation in which nothing is impacted would rank with bagging a live platypus. Impacted was useful for hundreds of years in geology, surgery and a few other fields where things were frequently jammed in between, or up against, other things. But the word proved restless and traveled far from home. It has by now lost any trace of precision, and lately seems to refer indiscriminately to anything that has any effect whatever on anything else.
Some words become jargon because their once-precise meanings got watered down through trendy misuse.
We here turn to that miasmic masterpiece comprehensive . Grantseekers are therefore especially susceptible, but grantmakers are not immune, either. But one chore of clear writing is to help such enthusiasm find some boundaries. The work of tracking down and exposing jargon would make a poor pastime for anyone who hopes to leave a mark on history. Still, the effects of the most persistent jargon are noxious enough to call for at least some occasional, informal policing.