Every industry has its own jargon. I can't name idioms from lawyers, doctors, artists or technology professionals because jargon serves as an in-vs-out indicator. And I'm out with them. But do we even know what our own industry is saying? I know what words pair well with each other, but I can’t say I know their definitions. I assume that the person I’m talking to doesn’t really know the meanings either. Instead we use the surrounding words to make a translation.
We rely on context clues, but why don’t we just switch to simpler sentences? In college writing classes, you’re taught to omit jargon, to replace it with trans-industry words. Jargon is unnecessary and only leaves the reader or listener lost. But we keep spewing it out because it makes us feel important. Unintelligible is often perceived as super-intelligence. Jargon is like a foreign language, except less romantic. Energy is wasted locating and isolating the confusing phrase and then deciphering it in order to rejoin the conversation and respond with equally unfamiliar words.
Gobbledygook, as it is often called, creates exclusivity and can leave the customer out in the end. An article in October’s Sales and Marketing Management tells how Electronic Data Systems in Plano, Texas redid their print ads in order to cut out IT jargon and get the message across instead. So maybe it’s time to think before you speak so the customer or coworker can listen and not decode.
--Jackie H.
Comments