Verbosity

I was remarking to someone recently about why business jargon is destructive. The phrase in question was "We are targeting AB & CD demographics". Now, I am no marketing stooge, so I don’t actually know what kind of person fits into either the AB or CD demographic. Thus, in order to understand that sentence, I would need to do some research. The rationale behind such a concept as labelling human beings with shorthands like that is that it makes it quicker to read, so long as you know what the short hand labels are. That is complete crap. What WOULD make it easier to read is if it was written out. Even those who know what an AB person is would benefit from having the full description, as the writing does the mental processing for you. When you use acronyms, jargon and short hand, you are taxing the mental processing of the reader. It is similar to a principle in user interface design whereby if you make an interface useable for those with disabilities, you make it more usable for those without. If you take the time to use redundant cues, for example colours and shading and font choice to indicate different functions, it makes the mental processing easier for all, not just those that are colour blind.

Now, consider this phrase from an email I just received, Microsoft’s Executive Circle Newsletter:

“This will allow you or your developers and administrators to increase efficiency during software testing and development, server consolidation scenarios and legacy line-of-business application re-hosting.”

Legacy line-of-business application re-hosting!!!! I have some idea of what that means. It means the allies are about to start D-Day. Surely, though, if you find yourself having to write such a sentence you shouldn’t have, “We hope you will find these useful when you’re thinking about improving communication in your own business.”, three sentences later.

It is the same issue a lot of us have with the txting crap that flies around everywhere these days. If you are too lazy to write proper English, all you are doing is putting the work on the reader. And why would anyone want to read something that is mentally taxing? I used to come across this bad English when I ran a chat room for a youth magazine years ago. I once pointed out that I didn’t think it was cool to use crap like ASL and n00b as you can’t be cool if you can’t create respect in others. How was I to respect a computer user who couldn’t type proper English fast enough that they had to abbreviate everything? It made a mark on a couple of the regulars and they made an effort to increase their typing speed or risk being labelled n00bs of the k3brd.