Read an article in LinkedIn that seemed too over-simplistic.
While the author is right in that the use of jargon when addressing people outside a profession can be counteractive, this is already intuitively done by most people. Telling someone that the jargon inside their profession isn’t understood by outsiders is redundant unless their audience is autistic and not being able to understand people don’t share that particular vocabulary of theirs.
Another point he made which I profoundly agree with is the use of meaningless words or catchphrases in business. George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” talked about this decades ago and did a better job at defining this.
But then the author went on arguing against jargon in general and that this should be done away with. A lot of the jargon in certain professions is quite useful. A term may have a specific meaning in their context which differs from general use Also, the jargon has a very specific meaning to them, and those inside the industry can quickly communicate. It’s similar to building a function in programming. One word holds a specific code instead of having to rewrite again and again that same code. They have a jargon with a specific meaning instead of having to explain themselves again and again. Not to mention that errors of interpretation can occur without this jargon since iv your vocabulary is limited you’ll now have different people explaining the same concept in different ways.
But not only on a practical sense is the elimination of jargon a mistake, it’s not how our brains work. Dialects form naturally, and most “jargon” is simply dialect. These linguistic properties arise organically to us, and it’s creation is as important as it every was, specially with all the new concepts and ideas being created compared to the past.
While using domain specific vocabulary on those outside the industry is obviously a bad idea most people intuitively understand and some words become meaningless, the jargon used in specific domains shouldn’t be eliminated since they help in the general conversation of those who share that professional dialect.
Just imagine accountants being told they are now to talk to each other without “financial jargon.” While good advice if they’re talking to those outside finance, it would be a disaster for the industry if adopted among themselves (assuming the professionals could discard the dialect even if they wanted).
Read an article in LinkedIn that seemed too over-simplistic.
While the author is right in that the use of jargon when addressing people outside a profession can be counteractive, this is already intuitively done by most people. Telling someone that the jargon inside their profession isn’t understood by outsiders is redundant unless their audience is autistic and not being able to understand people don’t share that particular vocabulary of theirs.
Another point he made which I profoundly agree with is the use of meaningless words or catchphrases in business. George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” talked about this decades ago and did a better job at defining this.
But then the author went on arguing against jargon in general and that this should be done away with. A lot of the jargon in certain professions is quite useful. A term may have a specific meaning in their context which differs from general use Also, the jargon has a very specific meaning to them, and those inside the industry can quickly communicate. It’s similar to building a function in programming. One word holds a specific code instead of having to rewrite again and again that same code. They have a jargon with a specific meaning instead of having to explain themselves again and again. Not to mention that errors of interpretation can occur without this jargon since iv your vocabulary is limited you’ll now have different people explaining the same concept in different ways.
But not only on a practical sense is the elimination of jargon a mistake, it’s not how our brains work. Dialects form naturally, and most “jargon” is simply dialect. These linguistic properties arise organically to us, and it’s creation is as important as it every was, specially with all the new concepts and ideas being created compared to the past.