Tag: language
-
Big words are big, but they’re not clever.
Some industries have an affection towards using big words. Sometimes they’re necessary (a type of lumbar surgery needs to be referred to as a laminectomy). But if they’re not, then using them can have the opposite effect. Describing familar ideas with pretencious language can be taken as a sign of poor intellegience. Below is a…
-
Business jargon shows what people would be rather be doing
Liz Ryan has written a piece at forbes.com titled “What Business Jargon Says About Us“. I found two things particularly interesting. Firstly the fact that most jargon relates to sport, war and cars: Over time it occurred to me that these activities — playing or watching sports, fighting enemies and driving cars as fast as…
-
Plain English for international readers
The team developing the visit visa service at gov.uk recently blogged about some testing with international users over a screencast which gave them some great insights from the kind of cultures and language challenges the service faced. Something that stood out for me was this paragraph: Unsurprisingly, language proved one of the biggest areas for feedback.…