Jargon-busters (who you gonna call?)
The one in which we rid the world of confusing terminology
HANDS up if you’ve ever used the phrase ‘at the present time’ in your writing. How about ‘with the exception of’, ‘in order to’ or ‘along the lines of’? I’ve been guilty many times. They’re the kind of flabby, easy phrases that most of us roll out without thinking, the written equivalent of ‘um’, ‘err’, ‘you know’ and ‘like’.
In his recent book Do I Make Myself Clear?: Why writing well matters, the journalist and editor Harold Evans calls such verbal indulgences ‘flesh-eaters’, which he defines as ‘unnecessary words, pompous phrases and prepositional parasites that eat space and reduce the muscularity of your writing’. Evans picks out government reports as particularly prone, but none of us is immune: where there are written words, there are flesh-eaters.
A general rule for writing is to use as few words as possible, or just enough to say what you mean (certain poets may disagree). If you’re striving for clarity, best to root out flesh-eaters wherever you find them. Evans has a list in his book of the most common, along with their preferred alternatives. Here’s a partial list, including the four mentioned above:
Lately at Common, we’ve been talking a lot about concise writing and how it helps people think. In April, we launched our jargon-busting campaign, a series of blog posts (of which this is the second) aimed at encouraging clarity in technical and other writing. When you’re familiar with a subject, it’s easy to fall back on jargonistic words and phrases that often mean nothing to people outside your field.
Here are six more frequently-used terms, along with their jargon-busting definitions. In due course we hope to collect all these definitions in a glossary that anyone can use. If you have some confusing phraseology you’d like us to exorcise, please send it our way.
Behavioural science. Behavioural science is the scientific study of human behaviour and the factors that influence people’s decision-making. It draws on experimental methods from several academic disciplines, in particular psychology, economics and neuroscience.
Ethnography. Ethnography is the study of people in the context of their culture or society, using the art of careful observation. The aim is to understand the world through the perspective of the subject, to see what they see and feel what they feel.
Systems thinking. Systems thinking is understanding how a system works by looking at the ways its constituent parts relate to each other and work together. A systems thinking approach to understanding the causes of famine, for example, would mean thinking about agriculture, food distribution, local politics, climate change, nutrition and so on.
UX design. UX design, or user experience design, is about improving people’s satisfaction with the products they use. The aim of a UX designer is to create devices, apps or services that are useful, accessible and enjoyable to use.
Lived experience. A person’s lived experience is their direct, first-hand understanding of a phenomenon. The term is often used in mental health research when researchers are trying to understand the personal experiences of individuals and how they make sense of what has happened to them.
Design sprint. A design sprint is a time-limited process in which a small diverse team works together to solve a problem or to prepare a product for market. The aim may be to help define goals or see how customers will respond to a product or service before rolling it out.
