Saturday, June 21, 2008
The end of jargon?
The Guardian reports that the Local Government Association has ordered Councils to outlaw the use of 100 jargon words. They have circulated a list of "non-words" that public bodies should try to avoid, including coterminosity, empowerment, multidisciplinary, place shaping and sustainable communities:
The association, representing councils in England, said the words were particularly tiresome when combined into phrases such as "predictors of beaconicity" - the title of a recent 38-page paper from the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The association's chairman, Sir Simon Milton, said: "The public sector cannot, must not and should not hide behind impenetrable jargon and phrases. Why do we have to have 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?" The banned list also includes cross-cutting, joined-up, outcomes, revenue streams, synergies, top-down and transformational.
Lucky this only applies in England otherwise the Welsh Assembly Government would have to re-write all of their strategy documents.
The association, representing councils in England, said the words were particularly tiresome when combined into phrases such as "predictors of beaconicity" - the title of a recent 38-page paper from the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The association's chairman, Sir Simon Milton, said: "The public sector cannot, must not and should not hide behind impenetrable jargon and phrases. Why do we have to have 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?" The banned list also includes cross-cutting, joined-up, outcomes, revenue streams, synergies, top-down and transformational.
Lucky this only applies in England otherwise the Welsh Assembly Government would have to re-write all of their strategy documents.
