How Diction & Jargon Can Cost You
There's diction that is only common in a particular field. In academia, there’s a generalisation – which is controversial in qualitative research. How does generalisation intersect with diction? I think we can start by defining the two in isolation to unlock the relationship between these words. Generalisation involves drawing universal conclusions from a few factors or facts. Diction entails certain words one chooses to use. Having provided these basic definitions, we can now appreciate the symbiotic relationship between the two.
That every regular or potential customer understands the jargon that you use in your industry is a generalisation. Jargon is part of a culture, and cultures are not uniform. What you know within your context, may be Greek or irrelevant to the next person. It is important to accommodate those who are not familiar with your business culture for you to effectively send messages across and elicit positive feedback.
Imagine you are in the same trade as Imageatwork, and you assume everyone understands what silkscreen is. It’s totally Greek to the layman. It is not as self-explanatory as haircutting which needs no lighter diction to simplify it as it comes in its simplest form. Are your statements not loaded with terms and acronyms that are uncommon to people outside of your industry?
You advertise your services as silkscreen to an audience that doesn’t even know what silkscreen is. Do you think they’ll all go on Google or other search platforms to seek knowledge on what your services really entail? Yes, some may do out of confusion and curiosity. But chances are high that the majority will omit it. Who loses potential clients? You, of course!!
Silkscreen is one of the services we offer. It’s simply the printing of your t-shirts, bags, pants, umbrellas, flags, anything you can think of etc. Don’t you think there are other lighter terms you can use to create an instant understanding of your message at the locus of the reception? There must be, find them.
With industry-jargon uncommon to your audiences, you unknowingly subscribe to the Lasswell communication model. This model is linear in its transmission of messages and does not value feedback. The model, propounded by Harold Lasswell, an American political scientist and communications theorist, in 1948, is more concerned with the sender and the message – the receiver’s perception of the message is not of any importance. You are in the industry to market your products and services to an audience you’ll elicit feedback from. But you’re of the Lasswell view, unknowingly. Does it work for your business?
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, in his LinkedIn post published in 2014, says: “Some people love speaking in jargon, using fancy words and turning everything into acronyms.” He further says that the habit “…slows things down, confuses people and causes them to lose interest.” As a means of making communication effective, Branson suggests that people “…use a simple term and commonplace words that everyone will understand, rather than showing off and annoying your audience.”
You wouldn’t want your potential clients, and those in your database already engaging in business with you to lose interest in interacting with you.
At Image At Work, we do have acronyms and jargon that we use across the manufacturing industry. Some will get introduced to our audiences soon, but we will make it a point that we give a detailed explanation about their meanings to make communication more effective.
CMT is one of the departments we have at Image At Work. CMT? Do you know the meaning of the acronym? If you do, I believe it’s because CMT is familiar. If you don’t know what it means, you’re probably not versed in that language. But that’s not a problem. At Image At Work, CMT is an acronym for Clothing, Manufacturing and Textile. In some settings, they prefer calling it CUT-MAKE-TRIM. Our CMT department makes everything fabric – your custom-made t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, tracksuits, sportswear, industrial wear, promo wear, etc. You just let us know what you need and leave the rest to us. We have a professional sewing team that doesn’t grope about.
Our CMT department is complemented by our Silkscreen department under the same roof. Imagine cutting down on costs by having your entire project done in one place – your t-shirts made by our CMT department and taken to our silkscreen department for printing.
Back to the primary issue. Ensure you work on how you communicate with your clients. Some of the clients you’ve dealt with before may understand your jargon, but you must bear in mind that people are not homogenous (uniform) in their interpretation of the world around them.