Noticing Jargon Before it Summons the Jar-gon Creature: Destroyer of Accessible Writing
What if jargon were as obvious as a towering creature stomping out of the sea? At my first corporate job in technology within the financial industry I was at my most jargon sensitive, absorbing, and using. My coworkers seemed so deeply informed, if only I could figure out what they were talking about. In time I learned enough of the vocabulary, meanings, and use. I thought I sounded informed. If jargon could turn into Jar-gon the towering creature I probably wouldn't have noticed after a few years. I picked up a lot of jargon writing habits.
A Museum Technology Event Talk
Another more recent jargon adventure. A few folks in the museum technology community were giving a talk and one of their collaborators needed to back out of their part. I was invited to fill in for them in a three person talk. I learned the museum industry is dealing with jargon, inclusivity, identity, culture, and purpose. Lot of fun things about that experience, three that stand out at the moment:
- The talk had messages about including and advocating for the audience/users.
- I met cool people doing interesting work in a totally different industry.
- It was a brief collaboration start to finish, from idea to story to performance.
Speaking of jargon, as soon as I'm intentionally sensitive about it I examine each word I write. Every time I do that I start to gather words I suspect are jargon. In this case I'm wondering where did we start using the word "industry" and why?
Is "industry" jargon?
A quick search for the definition and etymology of "industry":
The meaning "habitual diligence, effort" is from 1530s; that of "systematic work" is from 1610s. The sense "a particular trade or manufacture" is first recorded 1560s.
the aggregate of manufacturing or technically productive enterprises in a particular field, often named after its principal product: the automobile industry; the steel industry.
Seems like a fair enough current use considering the definition and etymology. I'd call that worth looking into to learn more about the word but it doesn't feel right to call "industry" jargon.
How do I notice jargon in my writing?
How does my jargon detection work? Why would I pick on a word as common as industry? A few things spark my jargon detecting attention:
- indirectness
- needless complication
- authoritative stance without transparency
- passive voice
- hiding meaning and euphemism
These are five baloney creatures. How do I know this? I've used every one of those when I started my first corporate job as a "web architect". It's humbling and embarrassing but also reasonable. That's where I was with my writing skills. I also think there's a fitting-in factor of working in an organization and having that same organization as my primary writing audience. When we write for our audience, we include the voice and words that help us reach the audience. We also include what is approved, appreciated, and rewarded our teams and organizations.
With a bit more practice indirectness, complication, passive voice, authority, euphemism are all fairly avoidable.
It helps that in some large organizations I've met highly skilled writers. They'll take rough design placeholder copy as food for thought and produce prose with approachable clarity imbued with the voice of the organization. In recent years though, I've noticed my placeholder copy writing has leveled up enough to be part of the final edit.
Practice helps. Using writing tools that evaluate your text with heuristics also helps. When I'm writing a formal talk or article I use the Marked App's tools that look for readability, word repetition, and passive voice.
The toughest jargon creature is more subtle: words about skills and technology.
Formal technical jargon to represent respected ideas.
I've noticed my writing change when I get a new gig or leave a gig. Part of that is I've worked in a variety of industries and departments in given industries. Each group recognizes skills, tools, and process through its own custom vocabulary.
This is the strongest case I can think of why using some jargon is actually wise. Each community needs to emphasize different language to show and tell what's most important. Some communities are studying super specific things that come with great risk. How else can they keep learning and building knowledge if they can't become more specific?
Informal technical jargon to be relatable.
As much as I value creative thinking and cleverly helpful things I also value being recognized and valued. Part of that means being relatable so I'm picking up jargon and putting to use too. Not just to sound relatable, some jargon is necessary to sound and to be informed.
Have you presented to a group without enough of their language? Sent an email to an organization or had an interview where in your mind you feel you said the same things they said but that audience sees it differently? This is when I notice wanting to discover and use enough of the informal technical jargon to be relatable.
Did I recommend using jargon?
I recommend using plain language. It's more accessible based on cognitive load and to groups outside the given jargon's in-crowd. As a result you'll reach a wider audience.
Writing for a specific technical skill audience? With enough study, care, and caution as writer and editor team. Used sparingly. Only enough jargon to help with clarity for the given audience and situation.
Still. Is it ever really safe to befriend or become a giant powerful Jar-gon creature? Plain language is more accessible and tough to imagine as a towering creature of trouble.