Use vs. Utilize

This is probably the best description of how to use these two different words that I've ever seen. I don't take credit for it; a new copy editor at work found it in her efforts to break the Marketing folks of their habit of using "utilize" in every other sentence (and always incorrectly). It's something technical writers and editors struggle with constantly: how to get others to understand that "utilize" doesn't make you sound smarter.

Here's an easy way to remember how to use these words correctly:

• McGyver once utilized a shoelace, bubble gum, a house key, and hair spray to create a bomb.
• If he had put the shoelace in his hiking boots, strolled home chewing the gum, opened his door with the key, and set his coiffure for the day with the hair spray, he would have been using those items instead.