& {sometimes} WHY

My husband Chris shared the clip below with me Sunday morning over breakfast. It’s a subject I gently tease him about whenever he enlists me to cast my eagle editing eye over one of his business writing projects. And every time I question a buzzword or acronym, he insists the people reading the piece will understand.

Uh huh. Right. Methinks it’s that old “all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time” routine. Or maybe it’s none of the people any of the time. Who wants to take THAT chance? Certainly not Faith Salie and CBS Sunday Morning:

Actually, Chris’ business partner is the buzzier of the pair and it’s the partner’s jargon that makes its way into their website copy, slide decks and print pieces. Or so Chris claims. I do my best to edit it out by suggesting alternatives. But in truth, they’re both convinced they “need” some of it to get their points across to their audience. And, I’m sad to say, there might be a smidgen of truth in that.

Naaah!

Most professions and special interest groups develop their “insider” language with the very same thought in mind. And while it may seem to streamline communication among the like-minded and -experienced, its shorthand is lost on the rest of us when jargon creeps into crossover conversations and leaves others feeling like outsiders. Which it eventually does.

Acronyms used by scientists, engineers and health care are what come to mind for me. An acronym is a kind of jargon created by combining the first letter or syllable of each word in a phrase to create a new, single word.

We all use some acronyms every day, like TV for television and ER for emergency room. Everyone knows the former outside of engineering circles, and the same with the latter beyond medical circles. EOB for “explanation of benefits” is a little less understood but one I had to get used to hearing and using when writing corporate benefits communications for employees.

As a journalist, I solved the problem by spelling it out on first reference and thereafter using the acronym. Or you can spell it out on first reference, put the acronym in parentheses, and use the acronym thereafter. But that’s old-school AP style. AP = Associated Press, which is the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) of the journalism world.

And whether or not we’re consciously trying to exclude people with acronyms and other kinds of jargon, consciously we tell ourselves they WILL understand.

…Until they don’t

Once at a New Year’s party, a friend who is an ER nurse practitioner was talking about her work to me and our host and used so many other medical acronyms that he and I looked at each other in bewilderment. “Linda, what does that stand for?” I asked.

“Thank you, ” our host nodded at me. “I thought I was the only idiot here.”

Linda shrugged. “I thought everybody knew that.”

“Everybody who works in an ER maybe,” I added.

“You mean ED,” she corrected.

“So that’s emergency….what?”

“Department. We call it the emergency department.”

“Oh,” I said. “Now I really feel dumb. Who knew TV was wrong all these years, calling it an ER? Just when I thought I understood at least THAT, someone goes and changes it on me. Figures.”

In all fairness, all the ERs I’ve seen in my lifetime have been way more than one room, so to call it a department is technically more descriptive and more correct. Hospitals, I assume in the cause of clarity and brevity, use the one word on signage “EMERGENCY.” And thinking about that, couldn’t “ER” derive from that one word instead of two, along the same lines as “TV” and “television”?

Take THAT, Linda! But take it quickly, because the craziness needs to end somewhere or…

Pretty soon it’s everywhere

To rephrase, it already IS everywhere. Well, mostly.

Just yesterday morning I was at a planning meeting for an annual county garden club event, and the club president referred to DDF. “What’s that?” I asked.

“Oh, sorry. Discover Downtown Franklin.”

Since I’ve never lived IN Franklin, the county seat, I’m not up on all the insider lingo, but at least he was sincerely apologetic, so I didn’t feel (as) stupid. Good thing I’m a journalist and not afraid to ask for clarification.

As we left the meeting, I chatted with a new member who said she didn’t get “DDF” either. She did comment on the scope of the publicity work I’d done for the event, though, and inquired about my background. After I told her I’d worked in journalism and public relations, I asked her what she did or had done for a living.

She replied she was an ER doctor. Not an ED doctor, mind you. And I understood perfectly. I’m guessing Linda wouldn’t have corrected her. Also having never lived in Franklin, I’m guessing Linda would have been clueless about DDF, too.

Maybe when I see her this afternoon, I’ll bring it up in conversation, and she can ask, “What’s that?” Rather than sneer, I’ll just slip in, “April Fools!”

Here’s your sign->