Jargon And Buzz Words

Engineering knowledge is becoming increasingly segmented and specialized. Because of this, so does the language. Jargon is about efficiency - imagine the great blot of words it would take to explain highly specialized material to a non-specialized audience. But if the audience shares that certain specially, writers shouldn't even try - that audience knows the terms and expects them.

Take a small and simple bit of jargon - signage. To someone involved in, say, a city transportation department, that little word carries big meaning. It means the whole subject of signs: deciding where they go, how they should look, what they should say, ordering them, paying for them, installing them. A lay person might ask: Is that even a word? And the answer is yes. It is a word to the specialist who understands it, and it's an exceptionally useful and meaningful word - a brief way to say much.

That's good jargon - a specialized term for a similarly specialized audience. The challenge for the engineer is imparting specialized knowledge and insights to the rest of the world. That means translating good jargon into plain English for a lay audience. The following passage, taken from an employee newspaper brief, shows what happens when specialized jargon is not translated:

Recent enhancements to the Voluntary Personal Accident Insurance and Accidental Death and Dismemberment plans include increased coverage for paraplegia and hemiplegia insurance and the addition of spouse vocational training benefits and double benefits for dismembered children.

The insurance jargon would be OK if the readers were insurance specialists rather than lay readers. The writer, from the company's human resources department, has probably been exposed to this sort of language so much that it sounds like English to him or her. But it doesn't to others. How might this passage have been written with the lay reader in mind:

The company has increased insurance for accident victims. The new plan increases benefits for employees who suffer paralysis of both legs or of one side of the body as a result of an accident. It also provides for spouse training and doubles benefits for children who lose a limb.

A buzz word is a word that taken alone might be both clear and meaningful but slips into meaningless "buzz" when accompanied by other buzz words. The phrasing is usually noun heavy, as in "process capability results." Try this little game with buzz word phrases. Put together something that sounds like it means something - "system remediation integration." Then mix up the same words: "remediation integration system" or "integration system remediation." Each combination will be equally highfalutin - and equally meaningless.