Jargon : Use with Care

Jargon is a specialized language for people within a particular field. The advantage of using jargon is when you communicate with people who have knowledge or skill in specialized areas, jargon is precise and saves time. On the other hand, the disadvantage of jargon is, when used inappropriately, jargon will make audience confuse or don't understand what you mean. So jargon should be used carefully.

There are six reasons why people use jargon,

1. Jargon is a useful, time-saving shorthand for the people inside a professional field, they can use jargon to get information faster.
2. Jargon can help to identify members of the professional group. If you know the jargon, you are in the group. So learning the right jargon is the first step to becoming a professional.
3. Experts use technical jargon on laymen might be trying to impress them, to make himself seem superior by using words and terms they can't understand.
4. The speaker cannot express his specialty in plain language, either because he is not accustomed to doing so or because he really doesn't have a good enough training.
5. General readers adopt jargon because they want to be in the group, not left out, Certainly, all of us like to present ourselves as educated, intelligent and alert to what's going on.
6. Jargon has considerable utility as euphemism. For example, military prefer "retrograde motion" to the word "retreat."

In this article, it suggests us,

1. Whether to use jargon requires careful analysis of the audience.
2. If the technical term is necessary, include definitions or footnotes to assist readers.
3. If plain language can be used instead of jargon without changing the meaning, plain language will be better choice.