Smart talk, but tiresome: Jargon
The increase in £M3 was approximately equal to bank lending plus the PSBR minus net sales of gilt-edged securities other than sales to the banks themselves.
Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11, 1992
. . . the cognitive-affective state characterized by intrusive and obsessive fantasizing concerning reciprocity of amorant feelings by the object of the amorance.
US sociologist’s definition of love, 1977
Most people recognise jargon when they see it: words and phrases that may have begun life within a particular circle of people, trade or profession, but which spread among others who merely wish to appear smart or up-to-date.
The Collins English Dictionary defines jargon as ‘language characterized by pretentious synatax, vocabulary or meaning; gibberish’.
But not all jargon is pretentious or gibberish. It includes the shop talk of technical terms, understood by those who need to know and who have no need to explain it to outsiders. It is for millions of people a form of time-saving professional shorthand. It is a specialist’s language designed for accurate and efficient communication between members of a particular group.
Fair enough. But too often, jargon and arcane verbiage are used by people to trick others into believing they know more than they actually do; or exploited as a security blanket to give them the feeling of belonging to an elite. This use – or misuse – can only interfere with meaning and understanding.
Hundreds of former valid scientific, technical. legal and technical terms have become more widely used as vogue or buzz words, and many of them are not properly understood. How many of us can hold hand to heart and say that we know precisely what these vogue words mean: parameter, symbiosis, quantum leap, synergy, dichotomy, post-modern? Yet despite our doubts we’re still tempted to use them.
In spite of the efforts of the Plain English Campaign, jargon is still very much alive and kicking when we read of:
| a visitor uplift facility | = | a tourist mountain train |
| ambient non-combatant personnel | = | war refugees |
| enthusiasm guidance motivators | = | cheer leaders |
| an unpremised business person | = | a street trader |
| festive embellishments (illuminary) | = | Christmas lights * |
| an ambient replenishment assistant | = | supermarket shelf stacker |
| wilderness recreation | = | camping and hiking |
| frame-supported tension structures | = | tents |
| unselected rollback to idle | = | aircraft engine failure in mid-flight |
* True. This is how the politically correct Northampton Council described them.
The Job Ads Jargon Jungle
It is something of a paradox that where plain language is needed most, jargon is often used instead. This is perhaps best illustrated in job recruitment, where companies offering jobs have created their own hideous non-language:
Moving from hierarchical structures to a process-based architecture, our success has been based on consistent, integrated teamwork and quality enhancement through people. By ensuring consistency in the development and integration of process plans, you will facilitate the management processes to develop implementation plans for the processes they manage. You will also be involved in business plan modelling, rolling plan methodologies and the measurement of process effectiveness. As Integration Planner, your position will be at the interface of the personal, planning, implementation and measurement matrix.
This example, quoted by the Plain English Campaign, prompts one to ask: ‘Did anyone get the job, and if so, what are they doing?’
Here are some more cautionary examples of jargon from the same swampy jungle:
cultivational – fortunately a rare sighting, in an English National Opera advertisement for a ‘Development Officer – Events’, to be responsible for coordinating and administering cultivational and fundraising events. It is just possible that cultivational really means something. Our guess is that it is something to do with sucking up to people to get them to put money into a project. Your guess will be just as good.
driven – as in quality-driven service organisation. As with orientated (see under separate entry), this is merely meant to indicate the firm’s sense of priority – in this case to offer high-quality services.
environment – meaning, usually, the place where the worker will do the job. The firm that boasted of a quality-driven organisation also promised . . . a demanding and results orientated environment. Another company required the applicant to have a background of progressive sales or marketing environment. In this case environment presumably meant experience or business – in which case sales or marketing would have sufficed. Progressive can only mean ‘forward-looking’ – and few firms would be looking for backward-looking candidates! Yet another employer advertised for a worker who should have experience in a fast-moving, multi-assembly environment.
Assuming that multi-assembly has its own meaning in the business concerned, why not simply require experience in fast multi-assembly?
human resources – This term has now supplanted personnel which in turn replaced employees or workers. Personnel, though also bureauspeak, at least does not have the ghastly pretentiousness and pseudo-caringness of human resources.
motivated – one of the most hard-worked jargon words in job advertisements . . . the ability to motivate, lead and be an effective team player; management and motivation of the sales force; should be self-motivated. In the first two examples, we can substitute inspire and inspiration. In the third, it is harder to guess what the applicant will be required to prove. Enterprising, perhaps. Or to show initiative. Or, if these sound too revolutionary for the company’s taste, able to work unsupervised.
orientated – as in results-orientated environment or profits-orientated system, is a high-profile jargon word (as is high-profile). The word is presumably meant to convey what a firm considers to be important. In these examples its use is nonsense-orientated. A company that is not keen on getting results or profits will not be placing job advertisements for much longer, so the phrase is redundant. Another jargon version is success-orientated for the far simpler ambitious. And in any case orientated is wrongly used for the shorter, original oriented.
pivotal role – Fancier version of key role. Neither helps much to explain a job. If the importance of the position needs to be stressed, what’s wrong with important?
positive discrimination – In Politically-Correct speak this means providing special opportunities in training and employment for disadvantaged groups and ethnic minorities. However the term is still widely misunderstood and perhaps best avoided. Favoured or give preference to might be better.
proactive – mostly found in social services advertisements describing the
