Jargon

Eric Bentley, an author, editor and translator, once said “Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon: instead of principles, slogans: and, instead of genuine ideas, bright ideas”.  Jargon is the vocabulary that is peculiar to a trade, profession, or group.  We often encounter jargon when we go to a doctor's office or try reading the fine print of the limited warranty for some expensive product that we've just bought. However, jargon can be found in any group of people with similar beliefs or activities.

During my life as a university student and, later, as a government employee and as a consultant, I was constantly bombarded with jargon. I even used it, in varying degrees, in my own business writing.  Jargon is fine if your audience understands it.  If you're giving a technical presentation to people in your profession, most of the audience will expect and understand your words. But, many people would argue that jargon is simply a protective barrier, put up to prevent others from infringing on territory. 

Brian Martin, with the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Wollongong, in Australia had these critical words to say about academic jargon: "Academics may battle among themselves over knowledge, but they have a common interest in maintaining the status of academic knowledge in the eyes of outsiders. If what academics do is too easy to understand, then it becomes harder to justify comfortable salaries and conditions". One could say the same thing about doctors, lawyers, publicists, plumbers, and other groups of like-minded people.

What jargon users fail to realize is that ordinary people who hear them speak or who read their words give them less credibility than they give to people who speak or write plainly.  So, if you want to be heard, believed, and understood, speak with words that paint clear pictures.