Dangerous jargon

Jargon can bring clarity for experts and irritation for laypeople, but could it sometimes be life threatening? Yes, according to the coroner heading up the inquest into the London terrorist attacks of 7 July 2005, Lady Justice Hallett.

Simple impatience with unclear terms is a more serious problem when it comes to understanding the situation at the scene of an emergency, she asserted on the last day of evidence-giving at the 7/7 hearing.

Is it really worth the time it takes to refer to a ‘conference demountable unit from a management centre’, rather than a ‘portable incident room’, for example?

And obscure job titles could confuse and disguise people’s roles, she pointed out. ‘I don’t know whether a crew manager is somebody who is responsible for supplies or is used to fighting fires. I have no idea,’ she said.

Jargon has a long history of naysayers, but Lady Justice Hallett’s criticism touched on the most fundamental practicality of appropriate language. ‘This isn’t just somebody being pedantic about the use of English … when it comes to managing incidents, people don’t understand what the other person is.’

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Author: Catie Holdridge

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Catie joined Emphasis with an English literature and creative writing degree and a keen interest in what makes language work. Having researched, written, commissioned and edited dozens of articles for the Emphasis blog, she now knows more about the intricacies of effective professional writing than she ever thought possible.

She produced and co-wrote our online training programme, The Complete Business Writer, and these days oversees all the Emphasis marketing efforts. And she keeps office repartee at a suitably literary level.