Business Communication: A Place for Jargon?

Under what circumstances is it appropriate to use jargon in verbal business Communications? This is a question addressed by Andrea Salmon (1), who recently reported that "meaningless jargon is becoming prevalent in corporate America." In this brief essay, it will be argued that excessive use of jargon is, as Salmon (2) herself pointed out, detrimental to clear and meaningful communication in the business setting. Jargon, as distinct from a specialized technical or professional vocabulary, has the potential to confuse listeners and to distort the content of communications.

Communication theorists, such as Barker and Barker (26 - 27), have pointed out that there is a clear difference between jargon and technical or professional vocabulary words and phrases. In most fields, special or unique vocabularies develop over time to capture meanings that are specific to the field. Jargon, in contrast, often becomes a sort of linguis

. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Barker Barker, Standard English, Andrea Salmon, Communication Jargon, Development Jan, salmon 2, barker barker, salmon 1, business communications, NJ Prentice-Hall, best-of-breed service partners, service partners experiential, partners experiential histories, championed best-of-breed service, achieving goals, partners experiential, technical professional, professional vocabulary, service partners, technical professional vocabulary, words phrases,
Approximate Word count = 659
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Business Communication: A Place for Jargon?