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Reader question: Please explain “sounds canned” in this sentence: Prepare your story in advance, and have the key parts memorized (though not word for word, so that it sounds canned). My comments: If this is part of an advice to someone on a job interview, the advice is: be prepared but not in such a way that you sound less genuine when you pronounce your words, as though you were reading a script. Canned, you see, originally refers to something put in a can, as in a can of beer or coke or orange juice. Cans are made of metal and are tightly sealed. Things put in cans last longer. The biggest characteristic of canned food or drink, though, is that they are mass produced, such as Coca Cola cans – we see them in every supermarket or grocery store. All cans of the same product look identical. In fact, they look exactly the same. Taste the same, too, needless to say. And not so refreshing if you’ve been having it for a long time. That’s the thing with people who sound canned. They’re not interesting or effective any more if we hear them say the same thing again and again. Since you have memorized your words by heart and perhaps have even read them aloud dozens of times for practice, when you actually speak in front of the interviewer, you may sound like you’re reciting the words like an actor reading a manuscript in front of an audience in theater. That way, you may sound insincere. | 
