Death to Jargon

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Death to Jargon

• K.G. Schneider, Fall 2007

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What is Jargon?

• A vocabulary common to a particular field of
  work or group of people.
  
• In our field, also known as Biblish

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Jargon is everywhere

• Digital camera software
• Are you sure you want to acquire the photos?
• preparing for acquisition

4
Why do we hate jargon?

• Vague sense that jargon stands between us and
  them
  
• Most bad customer service experiences involve
  jargon at some point in the transaction
  
• Jargon sucks the air out of language, making life
  less pleasurable

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We know it when we see it

• "Leverage our leadership brands and
  authoritative proprietary content to deliver
  innovative solutions orientated products that
  become embedded in customers' workflows and
  enable Reed Elsevier to move up the value
  chain."Source  the 2006 Reed Elsevier Annual
  Review and Summary (p. 15)http//www.reed-elsevie
  r.com/media/pdf/l/l/reed_anrev_2006_en_1.pdf

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Translation

• Weve got you where we want you. Now pay up!

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and see it

• Coordinating and optimizing the symbiosis
  between the computers mania for detail and the
  humans sense of the gestalt becomes more
  important every day, as more and more of the
  cultural record becomes digital, and yet our
  instruments for exploring that digital cultural
  record remain the blunt instruments of searching
  and browsing, Unsworth said.

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Translation

• We need better search engines.

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and SEE it

• With the aim of improving our service and our
  efficiency, the circulation area at the Main
  Library will be remodeled for better patron
  accessibility and oriented toward increased
  self-checkout options. To this end were adding
  two more self-checkout stations, for a total of
  four. Well have the same number of
  circulation clerks

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Translation

• Soon youll be able to check out books twice as
  fast! Were doubling the number of check-out
  machines. Excuse our dust while we remodel.

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Glossaries are a bad sign

• If you have to explain it with a glossary, then
  you need to rewrite it
  
• Nobody reads help pages!

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Academicspeak deserves special mention

• Scholarly communication
• Electronic resource management
• Institutional repository
• No library user should ever be exposed to such
  gobbledygook!

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Silence does not equal success

• An outcome-oriented approach to evaluating this
  objective is an outcome-oriented qualitative
  approach to determine if awareness of lii.org
  services
• I wrote this in a (winning) grant!

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Attention spans aremercilessly short

• What users actually do most of the time (if
  were lucky) is glance at each new page, scan
  some of the text, and click on the first link
  that catches their interest or vaguely resembles
  the thing theyre looking for. There are usually
  large parts of the page that they dont even look
  at.
• Steven Krug, Dont Make Me Think

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We know jargon is bad
So lets kill it!
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Obstacles

• Fear of stepping on toes
• Resistance to change (no one has complained!)
• Everyones busythe value of taking more time
  with language may not be evident

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Suggestions

• Start small
• Begin with yourself
• Demonstrate success
• Be gentle communication is a sensitive area

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1. Assume all writing is bad until proven
otherwise

• Theyre called first drafts for a reason
• See Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, on sy first
  drafts (an entire chapter on this topic)

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2. Hunt down and kill all terms users dont
understand

• Citation
• Database
• E-journals
• Finding aid
• Index
• Interlibrary Loan
• Online
• Periodical
• Reference
• Resource
• Serial
• Subject
• Virtual

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The subject of subject

• Huge gulf between our understanding of the term
  and our users understanding of the term
  
• A major single point of failure in user searches

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Link
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3. Use terms your users do understand

• Terms most often cited as being understood well
  enough to foster correct choices by users
  Find books, Find articles, and other
  combinations using natural language target
  words
• Kupersmith, 2007

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Link
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4. Think like a user

• The user is focused on action (not on tools). She
  wants to
  
• Find books and articles
• Answer a question
• Sign in to see if her books are overdue
• Find hours, locations, and events
• Pay fines, renew books, place holds

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What a user would not think

• Im going to use Boolean operators to search
  Widgmo for several known bibliographic items and
  then proceed to the circulation desk near the
  technical services area

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5. Write in an active voice

• Its harder to use jargon when you write in an
  active voice
  
• Try rephrasing sentences and phrases in an active
  voice
  
• NYPL Find Books
• SFPL Get a library card

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6. Use Questions and Orders(Interrogatives and
Imperatives)

• Grab the readers brain stemforce him to
  respond
  
• Find...
• Do you...?
• Have you...?
• Renew...
• Harder to phrase questions and orders with jargon

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7. Read your work out loud

• All Together Now
• An outcome-oriented approach to evaluating this
  objective is an outcome-oriented qualitative
  approach to determine if awareness of lii.org
  services

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8. Avoid cliches and popular expressions

• Treasure-trove
• Goldmine

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9. Get to the point, then stop

• Most library writing is bad in part because its
  so darn wordy
  
• Wordiness leaves room for jargon to sneak in!
• Screenwriting advice In late and out early
• Librarian-to-librarian advice weed your writing
  so the good stuff stands out
  
• Link LibraryThing

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10. Have noncombatants read your writing

• Spouses bad
• Siblings good
• Library frequent flyers bad
• Library chippers good
• Grocery clerks, gardeners, electricians terrific

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11. First, tell a story

• Sit down in a quiet room and describe whats
  going on from the users point of view.
  
• Susan walks into the library. She wants a book.
  Real bad. So bad she can taste it. But she forgot
  her card
  
• Link

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12. Read!

• The best antidote to jargon is to read good
  writing.
  
• You can even listen to good writing.

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Kupersmith Kondensed

• Test.
• Avoid terms users dont understand.
• Use terms users do understand.
• Explain confusing terms.
• If you absolutely must, present an intermediate
  page.
  
• Provide many ways to do the same thing.
• Be consistent, especially with special terms.

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Two Simple, CheapTest Methods

• Run the content past people unfamiliar with
  libraries
  
• Look at your website and OPAC search logs
• Your OPAC probably doesnt have search logs one
  more reason OPACs suck
  
• And outside LibraryLand, dont call it an OPAC

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More Test Methods

• Focus Groups
• Live Subject Testing
• Card-sort Tests
• Any assessment is better than no assessment

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You can fight jargon and still.

• Be funny (Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da)
• Use special language, even made-up words
  (biblioblogosphere)
  
• Write for specialized audiences (genealogists)

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Questions?

• To vector with the author in an optimized
  space-time continuum leveraging our global
  networked society, contact
  
• Karen G. Schneider
• kgs_at_freerangelibrarian.com