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The Perils of Using Jargonby Tim North
Phrases such as "interest capitalisation loans" and "interest only loans" are obviously clear as day to the people who use them, but the first time I heard them they did nothing but confuse me. Let me be honest here. I'm guilty of the same thing myself. When speaking as a proofreader, I'll sometimes use the jargon of my profession not realising that it's confusing to others. And when I speak as a computer consultant, the opportunity for jargon is even worse!
Unless they're trying to be pretentious, people don't usually use
jargon in a deliberate attempt to confuse others. It's generally
unintentional. We all have subjects in which we have more
expertise than the people around us, and it can be easy to forget
that the language we use can be confusing to others. How then can we avoid using jargon? Whether speaking or writing, the key is to be absolutely clear on what you can expect your audience to already know. If you're not sure, ask them. The upshot of this is that we may need to use different language when explaining the same concept to different audiences. A "one size fits all" approach is often inappropriate. For example, if I'm delivering a presentation to a group of
engineers, I'll use the necessary technical language of that
profession in order to ensure brevity and precision. No one in
such a group would mind the use of such language. Quite the
reverse -- if I were to "dumb down" the talk, it would be of
lesser value and probably poorly received.
If I was presenting the same information to middle managers, I'd employ different language. If pitched at the right level, they wouldn't consider it to be dumbed down; rather, they would (hopefully) find it clear and comprehensible. An untrained worker overhearing the middle-managers' presentation may still go away thinking that it was jargonistic, though. The lesson here should be clear: one person's jargon is another's clear speech. The onus, then, is on *you* to know what your audience can deal with and to explain your material in those terms. This can be a great challenge -- particularly if your own knowledge of the material is a bit shaky. (c)2005 Tim North, www.BetterWritingSkills.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: You'll find many more helpful tips like these in Tim North's much applauded range of e-books. More information is available on his web site, www.BetterWritingSkills.com and all books come with a money-back guarantee. This document last modified Sunday, 02-Mar-2008 21:00:22 EST | ||
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Tidbits & Stuff was born on Thursday, March 9, 2006
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Recently I spoke with loan officers at several of my local banks
in order to find out the costs associated with a housing loan.
One of the things that struck me in all of these conversations
was the astonishing (to me) level of jargon used by the bank
staff when explaining their products to customers.
