Title: Death to Jargon
1Death to Jargon
- K.G. Schneider, Fall 2007
2What is Jargon?
- A vocabulary common to a particular field of
work or group of people.
- In our field, also known as Biblish
3Jargon is everywhere
- Digital camera software
- Are you sure you want to acquire the photos?
- preparing for acquisition
4Why 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
5We 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
6Translation
- Weve got you where we want you. Now pay up!
7and 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.
8Translation
- We need better search engines.
9 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
10Translation
- 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.
11Glossaries are a bad sign
- If you have to explain it with a glossary, then
you need to rewrite it
- Nobody reads help pages!
12Academicspeak deserves special mention
- Scholarly communication
- Electronic resource management
- Institutional repository
- No library user should ever be exposed to such
gobbledygook!
13Silence 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!
14Attention 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
15We know jargon is bad
So lets kill it!
16Obstacles
- 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
17Suggestions
- Start small
- Begin with yourself
- Demonstrate success
- Be gentle communication is a sensitive area
181. 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)
192. 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
20The 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
21Link
223. 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
23Link
244. 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
25What 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
265. 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
276. 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
287. 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
298. Avoid cliches and popular expressions
309. 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
3110. Have noncombatants read your writing
- Spouses bad
- Siblings good
- Library frequent flyers bad
- Library chippers good
- Grocery clerks, gardeners, electricians terrific
3211. 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
3312. Read!
- The best antidote to jargon is to read good
writing.
- You can even listen to good writing.
34Kupersmith 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.
35Two 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
36More Test Methods
- Focus Groups
- Live Subject Testing
- Card-sort Tests
- Any assessment is better than no assessment
37You 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)
38Questions?
- To vector with the author in an optimized
space-time continuum leveraging our global
networked society, contact
- Karen G. Schneider
- kgs_at_freerangelibrarian.com