While the term “jargon” has garnered a negative reputation, it simply describes a special vocabulary used by specific professions. Doctors, businessmen, Congressman, and journalists all have their own; lawyers even have a word to describe their jargon – legalese.
The problem arises when someone within a certain profession takes their jargon outside their field and alienates a listener or reader.
For instance, what if an employee asked their boss if they could do some volunteer work for a nonprofit and he responded like the blow.
“Affirmative, although I will require a written notice specifying that the pro bono work done for the specified company is pursuant to the terms of agreement set out initially at the beginning of employment.”
“So, that’s a yes?”
As a communications director, my job is to take “jargon” that comes out of Congress and turn it into simple ideas that everybody can understand. Ever try reading a bill?
In any claim for compensation, where the employee is physically or mentally unable to testify about how the accident occurred because of injuries from the accident as confirmed by competent medical evidence and where the factual circumstances are of sufficient strength from which the only rational inference to be drawn is that the accident arose out of and in the course of employment, it shall be presumed the accident arose out of and in the course of employment, unless such presumption is overcome by a preponderance of competent evidence to the contrary.
I can’t send that out in a press release. I’d be a terrible communicator if I did. Instead, I figure out the fundamental meaning – and communicate that instead.
In fact, anyone that wants to become a great communicator needs to learn this skill no matter what career they’ve chosen, but unfortunately, many haven’t and instead continue to use jargon because of the reasons below.
5 Reasons People Use Jargon
1.) When they want to sound important.
At some point, people started believing that because we’ve spent years learning longer and bigger words that we’re supposed to use them. After all, it’s just embarrassing to use a word your six-year-old niece can understand. You’re an adult!
Lawyers are required to speak with formality within the courtroom, often using Latin words that only those within the legal world understand.
But sometimes they, and many in other professions including higher education, want to sound important to people outside their fields and therefore bring their jargon with them. After all, how else will other people know they spent tens of thousands of dollars on their law degree or Ph.D.?
The problem is that instead of impressing people this tactic comes off as speaking down to them. And that never impresses anyone.
2.) When they want to sound intelligent.
Sometimes, and I’ll be the first to admit this, we slip in words we know not many people will understand to point out how smart we are. But what does that accomplish? No one is going to be galvanized by our grandiose and subaqueous vocabulary.
Instead, it’s like the Emperor’s New Clothes. Nobody wants to be the first to point out that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes, and nobody wants to admit that we don’t understand what a word or phrase means. But once the truth comes out, everyone realizes the emperor is actually naked.
If you are a highly intellectual person – congrats! But people won’t think you’re smart because you sound like a periodical. They think you’re smart when you can convey an idea clearly and concisely.
3.) When they want to hide something
There is no better way to hide something embarrassing, or potentially negative, than by using jargon. For instance, imagine a CEO of a company decides to allow his reckless and immature son to try his hand at running the company for a few weeks. Well, not surprisingly, the son is reckless and immature with his newfound leadership and soon blows millions of dollars on bad decisions, and Chinese take-out.
When the father looks at the financial report, he is not only disappointed but worried. The company has lost so much money they will have to let go of 50% of their employees. And oh no don’t look now, but the press has gotten wind of it and is knocking on the back door demanding to know what happened.
Now, if the CEO was brutally honest he would tell them: My son is an idiot and lost the company millions of dollars. Because of this giant mistake, I am now going to have to let go of half of my employees go. This is a disaster.
While the CEO may usually be an honest man, he cannot say that. So he must rely on jargon to get him out of this unpleasant situation and here is his quote he gives the media at a press conference:
“The company has decided to progress with a reconstitution plan as it looks for ways to restructure its assets to ensure it is able to face the modernization of the industry. During this aggressive restructuring phase, we will be realigning our resources to fit the new corporate strategy. We are excited about the possibilities as we maximize our output by streamlining our workforce.”
He is sure to stump the reporters for a good solid minute until a journalist in the back shouts, “So you’re firing everyone?”
4.) When they are lazy.
Long, complicated sentences full of a long, complicated word are sure-tell signs that you have a terrible and/or lazy writer on your hands.
Instead of having to give thought to each word, or take the time to edit out unnecessary ones, they grab whatever comes easiest to them at the moment.
Also, nowadays people add “ize” to just about any word to create a new one when it takes too much time to think of a better word in the first place.
Find the best word in your writing, not the easiest.
5.) To show competence within a specific field
And here we have the only acceptable reason to use jargon. Sometimes.
I know you want to “utilize your resources to maximize earnings potential and reach new scalability levels.” But couldn’t you just try to grow the company, too?
So if you’d like to remove jargon, or just improve your writing, in general, I’d recommend “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. Because in this day and age, the clear and concise speech will make you stand out from the crowd.
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Sarah – I believe you nailed these reasons perfectly. In my experience the top 3 are the ones I have seen demonstrated the most. I appreciate your take on this matter being that you have a job in communication. Thanks so much your neighbor today at #LMM Linkup
I’ve worked in the medical field 15+ years and I feel like I speak 3 languages: English, Spanish, and Medical jargon. I’m careful not to use medical terminology around lay folk though. At work it’s a different story because medical personnel is expected to speak in a professional manner. Around family, friends, neighbors . . . etc. I use normal everyday words because I want to be understood. 😉
Great philosophy. And I completely understand using jargon in a specific field – it can cut down on a lot of explanation!
Great and very informative information, Sarah. I agree with you completely. There’s a time and place for jargon. In a work-setting or during a business meeting is one of them. Having dinner with friends or family after hours is a different story. Thank you for sharing this with us on #shinebloghop this week!
Couldn’t agree more. Thanks, Maria!
I hate jargon, even in my specialist subject I try to keep it to a minimum, there are some sayings I particularly dislike, Blue Sky Thinking and having a dialogue, “oh you mean a chat”. Honestly, speak in plain terms unless you can speak in Shakespearean.
A popular one here on the Hill is “low hanging fruit.” We gotta grab the low hanging fruit where we can! Drives me nuts. 🙂
Great points! I had never really thought much about this subject. I do realize jargon helps people with very specialized knowledge communicate more accurately with each other, but I think this falls under your Point #5. As far as your other points, I think of the Bible verse, “Knowledge puffs up but love edifies.” Thanks for sharing at the #LMMLinkup
I love the book “On Writing Well” by Zinsser , it is a great book, I learned a lot and continue to go back to it again and again. Sometimes I find that only the word that comes to mind will do, but most times we can break things down to make them more readable and so the majority can understand what we are trying to convey.
I agree, it takes much more work to figure out how to make something comprehensible to most of the people instead of just using big words. You have a really interesting career, I love words so I bet it’s pretty interesting too.
Yes yes all good but there’s another reason. Sometimes my boss tells me to find out about “unfunded mandates” and even though I have no earthly idea what that means, that’s what I type into Google.
So there is some benefit to using jargon in headings — it helps me find the what I’m searching for.
**BUT** — this is no good to me if I don’t understand any of the rest of the copy because it is all jargon. So make sure the text under your heading is in plain English. That way I find out what an “unfunded mandate” is, as well as finding out what you have to say about it.
haha good advice!
A very interesting and informative post. I didn’t even think of a lot of these reasons. Especially the more professional uses!
I’ve got one more: when they’re running for office (!) Yes, that’s right. I’m across the Pond, in the US, where things are decidedly not-as-usual these days. But I did enjoy your blog. I found you on #weekendblogshare. Go Hannah!
haha couldn’t agree more. I actually work for Congress so I’ve seen way too much of it. Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks goodness there are communications professionals like you in Washington! I’d never understand what is going on!
haha I don’t even understand what is going on some of the times. 🙂
Stumbled across this again today and I had to tell you how much I love this post. I have been more aware of this since I read this and watch for it. I like things in plain language, I want to understand what I’m supposed to do or have the ability to figure out if it’s something I agree with.
I supposed that’s one of the reasons that the Yoast plugin wants us to use a reader level that is easy to understand, sure makes reading for pleasure much more enjoyable! LOL
haha that would make sense! Yoast is a jargon-figher. 🙂
Oh, I love this post! It’s interesting and funny at the same time. I also vote for “clear and concise speech”. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Anna! Clear and concise is my motto.
Interesting post! I hadn’t thought about this previously, but I’m glad you drew my attention to it. 🙂
My husband has “On Writing Well” on audiotape and was just playing it when we were driving the other day. We realized that we are teaching children to write the wrong way. We’re constantly encouraging them to add more adjectives and choose more “interesting words”. This was a great post that made me think about that even more.
I’m so glad someone else has read, or listed, to that book! It’s a classic in writing.
Thank Goodness we have people like you making it all clear to the average reader!
Well I have so much room to grow to become a better writer too. We can all do it together!
Hi Sarah,
Interesting post. You have mentioned all five points nicely, why people use jargon. This is true when they hide something, or when they want to show themselves intelligent.
Really interesting and informative!
I have to admit… Sometimes I like to throw some jargon in when I talk to other teachers, or when I talk to people I know about teaching, just so I sound cool (shame on me!). I honestly try not to do it, although sometimes it’s hard to remember that not everyone is aware of the terms that I use on a day-to-day basis at work.
Rebecca – I think Jargon definitely has a place within a confined area – like among teachers! I have sometimes done the same when I talk about politics with people outside of DC so I am also learning though 🙂
I love this post! Always makes me feel smarter when I throw it in!
Haha it definitely can!
The first thing that came to my mind while reading this is the episode of Friends when Joey is applying for a job so he changes his resume to sound smarter, haha.
HA! I think that happens fairly often 😉
What an interesting post! I’ve heard a lot of jargon in the medical field from when I worked a short stint at our local hospital, but I never understood even a small amount of what was being talked about.