Cheryl Stephens 2022
What’s the problem?
In this Information Age, we are having more trouble than ever just trying to understand one another. We have a common language, but slang, the shortcuts to speak in different subcultures divide us. Jargon, gibberish, business-speak, gobbledegook. These are hurdles.
Jargon is a shortcut for people doing the same work. Sometimes it is pretentious language. Every group has it. Jargon is a shortcut for the in group but keeps others out. It creates a divide between those who know and those who want to know, those we want to understand us, and those who need to know.
But I have a right to understand. You have a right to understand. Let’s demand to understand.
Jargon comes across to others as obscure or pretentious, preventing access. Maybe even suggesting that if you don’t know the terms, it’s a failing in you. It aggravates the situation when writing also uses unfamiliar words and long sentences. Anyway, surveys have shown that a good portion of your staff don’t understand your jargon and only pretend they do.
Where is the pain?There is competition for our attention, and we are subjected to information overload from every direction. Confusing or missing information frustrates us. When we don't understand the jargon, we can't engage with your organization or products. We don’t have the same background knowledge. We aren’t living and breathing your work, but we’re interested, and we deserve to know.
Jargon interferes with our lives and aggravates our problems: 3 out of 4 of people lack health literacy. They can’t understand the language and information used to talk about their health: almost half don't have the literacy skills to deal with daily life. They can’t understand the forms and directions they receive every day
We make small changes that make a big difference to those people. People we want to reach: people who want to understand. There is no excuse for refusing to communicate. It is not in our interests nor in the interest of business and government.
I’ll offer you 3 typical situations.
One: Scientific research solves problems facing society. Scientists publish what they discover but the people who could turn that knowledge into policy and action don’t understand what was written.
Scientists need to write in clearer, simpler language.
Axiological Dominant of Psychological and Pedagogical Methods in Distance Education
“The development of a technogenic society objectively sets other tasks and creates opportunities for the development of distance education. The purpose of the article is to substantiate, within the framework of the axiological approach, the connection between the theoretical and practical components of the educational process in distance education. The main research methods are causal genetic and axiological. The information technology system (or ITS) for teacher training acts as a matrix that presupposes both the formation of stable knowledge on the relevant academic discipline in the process of distance learning and an understanding of the mechanisms of personality formation.”
To spread their ideas, they need help from people with communication skills. It has become necessary to employ knowledge translators. Otherwise scientists can’t spread the discoveries. That’s jargon itself: knowledge translator. Literally, it means to translate the language of experts for the rest of us.
We need scientists to design solutions that become public policies. When policy makers don’t understand, solutions don’t happen.
So, jargon blocks benefits to all of society. It dams up the flow of knowledge.
The public can't benefit from discoveries while those are locked up in jargon, technical language, and acronyms.
Scientists want to publish what they learn and have these ideas spread. They also want their research to circulate—that is, to get mentioned by other scientists. They use jargon as a shortcut when talking to other scientists. Jargon signals to their peers they know what they’re talking about, that they belong to the in-group.
The jargon backfires when it is not understood by colleagues in different but related subjects.
Collen Flaherty's research found that articles that are difficult to read don't make the author sound smarter. They get mentioned less by other scientists, which means their ideas aren’t spreading. Earlier studies support this idea that academic articles with unclear writing have a smaller impact.
Let me share this:
For the past 3 years, I have been reading neuroscience research that teaches me something about communication. I have lots of neuroscience alerts set up.
When a notice comes in, I read the title of the research report. If I can’t understand the title, I will read the abstract, which is supposed to be a summary. If I still can’t figure out what the study was about, I give up. I also read the articles written in the popular media, like Science Report, or Forbes, or an internet site. Those articles have links to the research reports. I check that the article accurately described the results of the study.
I discovered that the research reports that are understandable will get written up in the popular media. Those that are difficult to understand, don’t get written up.
Some organizations that fund research require plain language summaries from the researchers they fund. Not only do policy-makers and funders like the Canadian Institutes for Health Research need to understand what they are funding, but they are saying that the results have to be understood, accessible to an audience larger than just other experts as they are accountable to taxpayers about what kind of research is funded.
Here’s the second situation:
Colleagues from different fields can’t understand each other when they work on the same team. Jargon interferes with
Consider the team at Aspect that worked together to figure out how to 3D-print sheets of human tissue for medical uses. They come from different industries and fields of activity to solve problems together. They are biologists, engineers, computer geniuses, medical doctors and researchers, and professionals in other fields.
They work with each other to achieve one common aim. They draw on each other’s knowledge to work toward their common goal. They had to drop the jargon. They have to explain themselves in language everyone on the diverse team understands. They have to figure out how to talk to each other as humans.
Luckily, this team did that. Because they learned to talk to each other as humans — to be understood. They came up with an amazing product that will help people recover and live better lives.
Last scenario:
Communication between experts is a challenge, but you know it is even more difficult for them to communicate with non-experts!
Everyone consumes information to make life choices, whether it is in medicine, insurance, business, or government programs. Even for day-to-day things like reading food labels, auto insurance, sports waivers or a mortgage statement. Don’t you agree that we must understand information important to our lives? Consumers face endless blah, blah, blah jargon they can’t understand.
This is my story.In 2017 I had cancer. I received chemotherapy, 35 sessions of radiation therapy, and a throat surgery.
I dealt with 5 departments at the cancer agency. Each department gave me a short stack of written material. Three cancer doctors and a surgeon gave me more paper. I also got 2 booklets. 12 inches of reading, in all.
I had daily appointments for 2 months, with only weekends off. Most of the information was about how to cope with things happening in the moment. But I could not read it all.
My caregiver was busier than I was. She was also trying to get informed.
Can you relate to that?
You need information to navigate a crazy point in life. But life is going crazy! You can’t even get the information you need at the right time. Then when you get it, you can’t understand it.
Making sense of things is my specialty. And understanding all this felt important. So, I found a last bit of energy, stacked all that material on my coffee table, and worked through it.
There was a lot of overlap. That’s the good news: there’s wasn’t 12 inches to understand, I could whittle it down. But even the overlapping information used different language for the same thing. First I had to figure out what was overlapping!
Clear information is my expertise. So, I wasn’t feeling defeated by the task as most people would. I tore apart papers and book pages to stack the related advice together. I read it all. Kept the bits I needed. I threw away the rest.
I reduced a 12-inch stack to 3 inches. That was the useful information. I then turned over that small stack to my caregiver to read.
Tackling that 12-inches of information was a problem for me. It would be torture to others. I am sure that most patients don’t even try to read it all. But I’ll bet that their primary caregiver does try. Wouldn’t you?
What needs to be done?
Translate to eliminate jargon.
An organization in my city offers support services to cancer patients. They now hold one-hour sessions to explain the information that is a barrier for most people.
So, picture someone you care about going through that. Your grandfather, mother, sister, nephew—and you are their caregiver. Is it right to put them and you through information hell that takes an hour to get ready to understand?
Again, communication specialists have developed to translate information into usable information. We call that health literacy. We should not need more knowledge translators to convert English to understandable English. We need to cut the jargon!
Make it plain! Cut the jargon! Communicate to be understood.
Write to communicate, not to impress. Favour understanding over technical rigour; it may not be the language used research reports, but it should be language meaningful to the consumer.
When a person has trouble understanding, it's because you had trouble explaining. The labour involved in communicating is the responsibility of the person delivering the message--not the reader's job!
Show respect and concern for your readers.Look at any situation from your reader’s perspective. Don’t consider only that they’re very educated, also consider whether they’re in good health, if they’re stressed out and have too many demands on their time, how much energy they want to spend to understand.
Have some empathy for your reader's needs.
Picture someone you care about going through whatever situation your reader faces. Is it right to give them material they have to work at understanding? Why put yourselves through information hell?
It need not be this way.
Technical language and unnecessary jargon are required by law. The Latin terms used in medicine are not worthy of their mysterious nature. Fact is, they came from plain language Latin.
Instead of training more knowledge translators to convert English to understandable English, we need to cut the jargon!
Make it plain!
Demand plain language. And use it yourself!
1. Use words familiar to your readers. Check the words used in their preferred reading and listening materials. Look in word-frequency lists that rate how often each word appears, so you can tell which ones are familiar.
2. Write simple sentences. Use shorter sentences. Write sentences where someone does something. That is the default and the simplest order for an English sentence.
3. Explain necessary jargon in plain terms where it first appears.
4. Test the language on people like your readers.
Make it plain and simple! Your readers will understand more, and you’ll get better results.
Here's to plain speaking and clear understanding.
What’s the problem?
In this Information Age, we are having more trouble than ever just trying to understand one another. We have a common language, but slang, the shortcuts to speak in different subcultures divide us. Jargon, gibberish, business-speak, gobbledegook. These are hurdles.
Jargon is a shortcut for people doing the same work. Sometimes it is pretentious language. Every group has it. Jargon is a shortcut for the in group but keeps others out. It creates a divide between those who know and those who want to know, those we want to understand us, and those who need to know.
But I have a right to understand. You have a right to understand. Let’s demand to understand.
Jargon comes across to others as obscure or pretentious, preventing access. Maybe even suggesting that if you don’t know the terms, it’s a failing in you. It aggravates the situation when writing also uses unfamiliar words and long sentences. Anyway, surveys have shown that a good portion of your staff don’t understand your jargon and only pretend they do.
Where is the pain?There is competition for our attention, and we are subjected to information overload from every direction. Confusing or missing information frustrates us. When we don't understand the jargon, we can't engage with your organization or products. We don’t have the same background knowledge. We aren’t living and breathing your work, but we’re interested, and we deserve to know.
Jargon interferes with our lives and aggravates our problems: 3 out of 4 of people lack health literacy. They can’t understand the language and information used to talk about their health: almost half don't have the literacy skills to deal with daily life. They can’t understand the forms and directions they receive every day
We make small changes that make a big difference to those people. People we want to reach: people who want to understand. There is no excuse for refusing to communicate. It is not in our interests nor in the interest of business and government.
I’ll offer you 3 typical situations.
One: Scientific research solves problems facing society. Scientists publish what they discover but the people who could turn that knowledge into policy and action don’t understand what was written.
Scientists need to write in clearer, simpler language.
Axiological Dominant of Psychological and Pedagogical Methods in Distance Education
“The development of a technogenic society objectively sets other tasks and creates opportunities for the development of distance education. The purpose of the article is to substantiate, within the framework of the axiological approach, the connection between the theoretical and practical components of the educational process in distance education. The main research methods are causal genetic and axiological. The information technology system (or ITS) for teacher training acts as a matrix that presupposes both the formation of stable knowledge on the relevant academic discipline in the process of distance learning and an understanding of the mechanisms of personality formation.”
To spread their ideas, they need help from people with communication skills. It has become necessary to employ knowledge translators. Otherwise scientists can’t spread the discoveries. That’s jargon itself: knowledge translator. Literally, it means to translate the language of experts for the rest of us.
We need scientists to design solutions that become public policies. When policy makers don’t understand, solutions don’t happen.
So, jargon blocks benefits to all of society. It dams up the flow of knowledge.
The public can't benefit from discoveries while those are locked up in jargon, technical language, and acronyms.
Scientists want to publish what they learn and have these ideas spread. They also want their research to circulate—that is, to get mentioned by other scientists. They use jargon as a shortcut when talking to other scientists. Jargon signals to their peers they know what they’re talking about, that they belong to the in-group.
The jargon backfires when it is not understood by colleagues in different but related subjects.
- It keeps ideas from circulating.
- It does not build credibility which gets promotions.
- It keeps the ideas from crossing over entering other research areas where it can lead to new insights.
Collen Flaherty's research found that articles that are difficult to read don't make the author sound smarter. They get mentioned less by other scientists, which means their ideas aren’t spreading. Earlier studies support this idea that academic articles with unclear writing have a smaller impact.
Let me share this:
For the past 3 years, I have been reading neuroscience research that teaches me something about communication. I have lots of neuroscience alerts set up.
When a notice comes in, I read the title of the research report. If I can’t understand the title, I will read the abstract, which is supposed to be a summary. If I still can’t figure out what the study was about, I give up. I also read the articles written in the popular media, like Science Report, or Forbes, or an internet site. Those articles have links to the research reports. I check that the article accurately described the results of the study.
I discovered that the research reports that are understandable will get written up in the popular media. Those that are difficult to understand, don’t get written up.
Some organizations that fund research require plain language summaries from the researchers they fund. Not only do policy-makers and funders like the Canadian Institutes for Health Research need to understand what they are funding, but they are saying that the results have to be understood, accessible to an audience larger than just other experts as they are accountable to taxpayers about what kind of research is funded.
Here’s the second situation:
Colleagues from different fields can’t understand each other when they work on the same team. Jargon interferes with
- teamwork,
- collaboration,
- progress.
Consider the team at Aspect that worked together to figure out how to 3D-print sheets of human tissue for medical uses. They come from different industries and fields of activity to solve problems together. They are biologists, engineers, computer geniuses, medical doctors and researchers, and professionals in other fields.
They work with each other to achieve one common aim. They draw on each other’s knowledge to work toward their common goal. They had to drop the jargon. They have to explain themselves in language everyone on the diverse team understands. They have to figure out how to talk to each other as humans.
Luckily, this team did that. Because they learned to talk to each other as humans — to be understood. They came up with an amazing product that will help people recover and live better lives.
Last scenario:
Communication between experts is a challenge, but you know it is even more difficult for them to communicate with non-experts!
Everyone consumes information to make life choices, whether it is in medicine, insurance, business, or government programs. Even for day-to-day things like reading food labels, auto insurance, sports waivers or a mortgage statement. Don’t you agree that we must understand information important to our lives? Consumers face endless blah, blah, blah jargon they can’t understand.
This is my story.In 2017 I had cancer. I received chemotherapy, 35 sessions of radiation therapy, and a throat surgery.
I dealt with 5 departments at the cancer agency. Each department gave me a short stack of written material. Three cancer doctors and a surgeon gave me more paper. I also got 2 booklets. 12 inches of reading, in all.
I had daily appointments for 2 months, with only weekends off. Most of the information was about how to cope with things happening in the moment. But I could not read it all.
My caregiver was busier than I was. She was also trying to get informed.
Can you relate to that?
You need information to navigate a crazy point in life. But life is going crazy! You can’t even get the information you need at the right time. Then when you get it, you can’t understand it.
Making sense of things is my specialty. And understanding all this felt important. So, I found a last bit of energy, stacked all that material on my coffee table, and worked through it.
There was a lot of overlap. That’s the good news: there’s wasn’t 12 inches to understand, I could whittle it down. But even the overlapping information used different language for the same thing. First I had to figure out what was overlapping!
Clear information is my expertise. So, I wasn’t feeling defeated by the task as most people would. I tore apart papers and book pages to stack the related advice together. I read it all. Kept the bits I needed. I threw away the rest.
I reduced a 12-inch stack to 3 inches. That was the useful information. I then turned over that small stack to my caregiver to read.
Tackling that 12-inches of information was a problem for me. It would be torture to others. I am sure that most patients don’t even try to read it all. But I’ll bet that their primary caregiver does try. Wouldn’t you?
What needs to be done?
Translate to eliminate jargon.
An organization in my city offers support services to cancer patients. They now hold one-hour sessions to explain the information that is a barrier for most people.
So, picture someone you care about going through that. Your grandfather, mother, sister, nephew—and you are their caregiver. Is it right to put them and you through information hell that takes an hour to get ready to understand?
Again, communication specialists have developed to translate information into usable information. We call that health literacy. We should not need more knowledge translators to convert English to understandable English. We need to cut the jargon!
Make it plain! Cut the jargon! Communicate to be understood.
Write to communicate, not to impress. Favour understanding over technical rigour; it may not be the language used research reports, but it should be language meaningful to the consumer.
When a person has trouble understanding, it's because you had trouble explaining. The labour involved in communicating is the responsibility of the person delivering the message--not the reader's job!
Show respect and concern for your readers.Look at any situation from your reader’s perspective. Don’t consider only that they’re very educated, also consider whether they’re in good health, if they’re stressed out and have too many demands on their time, how much energy they want to spend to understand.
Have some empathy for your reader's needs.
Picture someone you care about going through whatever situation your reader faces. Is it right to give them material they have to work at understanding? Why put yourselves through information hell?
It need not be this way.
Technical language and unnecessary jargon are required by law. The Latin terms used in medicine are not worthy of their mysterious nature. Fact is, they came from plain language Latin.
Instead of training more knowledge translators to convert English to understandable English, we need to cut the jargon!
Make it plain!
Demand plain language. And use it yourself!
1. Use words familiar to your readers. Check the words used in their preferred reading and listening materials. Look in word-frequency lists that rate how often each word appears, so you can tell which ones are familiar.
2. Write simple sentences. Use shorter sentences. Write sentences where someone does something. That is the default and the simplest order for an English sentence.
3. Explain necessary jargon in plain terms where it first appears.
4. Test the language on people like your readers.
Make it plain and simple! Your readers will understand more, and you’ll get better results.
Here's to plain speaking and clear understanding.