Cutting the Bureaucratic Jargon
By Brenda Duran
Published in Public Relations Society of America “Strategies & Tactics” Issue Feb 2023
For those of us who work in the public sector, jargon and acronyms are all too familiar. Oftentimes, unfortunately, this esoteric internal vocabulary sneaks its way into our communication with the public we serve, obscuring the meaning of our messages.
The public often complains about bureaucratic hurdles in government, so we shouldn’t include bureaucratic language in our government communications. The goal should always be to provide the public with clear information in plain language that’s easy to comprehend.
This new year, take time to review your communications with a discerning eye. Ask yourself whether you’re making public information more complicated than it has to be. If so, then here are four ways to write more clearly for the masses:
For those of us who work in the public sector, jargon and acronyms are all too familiar. Oftentimes, unfortunately, this esoteric internal vocabulary sneaks its way into our communication with the public we serve, obscuring the meaning of our messages.
The public often complains about bureaucratic hurdles in government, so we shouldn’t include bureaucratic language in our government communications. The goal should always be to provide the public with clear information in plain language that’s easy to comprehend.
This new year, take time to review your communications with a discerning eye. Ask yourself whether you’re making public information more complicated than it has to be. If so, then here are four ways to write more clearly for the masses:
Keep communication simple and conversational.
More than a decade ago, the issue of poor communication from government agencies was considered serious enough that Congress passed the Plain Writing Act of 2010.
The law requires federal agencies to use “clear government communication that the public can use and understand.”
However, as many of us know, communicating clearly remains a struggle for public-sector organizations. An annual inventory of your communications materials will help you find jargon and acronyms you might have missed, so you can replace those terms with language your audience will understand. When reviewing your communications, spell out any acronyms you find and replace jargon with lay terms.
Aim to keep your writing simple and conversational. Strong verbs make writing flow and pique the reader’s interest.
Just as an elevator pitch tries to explain a complicated topic in a sentence or two, information for the public should be simplified.
As public-sector communicators, we’re tasked with putting out crucial information that we need people to read and understand. It’s our responsibility to make sure those messages are short, simple and clear. Any action the public needs to take should be front and center.
We can all remember receiving cluttered, wordy pamphlets that bury vital information. As communicators, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of our readers. If they can’t understand what we’ve written because it’s clogged with jargon and acronyms, then they will dismiss our work altogether.
Short sentences can say a lot. To achieve that brevity, we have to remove our bureaucratic hats.
Clear communication is also about transparency. Plain language lets your agency inform the public about how new laws or ordinances might affect them.
Write to inform, not impress.
My organization uses a long list of acronyms. Conversations with colleagues are often filled with these references that outsiders would find meaningless. We can’t assume audiences will understand such terms when they find their way into our communications.
Most people already view government writing as monotonous and stagnant. Jargon doesn’t impress anyone. The goal isn’t to impress audiences with novel language, but to inform them. To do that, we can write like reporters, emphasizing the who, what, where, when and why. By using everyday words, we can avoid drowning out our most important messages.
We have an opportunity to write engaging copy that creates connections between the public and our organizations.
Be concise, provide context.
When taking inventory of the language we use, we should challenge every word like an editor. Our writing should be concise and straight to the point. Ask colleagues to read what you’ve written and see if it accomplishes those goals.
It’s also important to provide context for readers. We should take time to explain references that might be second nature to us but unfamiliar to them.
When editing, we should omit information that’s not essential to make room for information that is. Text and graphic elements such as lists, headers and outlines can communicate in economical ways.
Go with the familiar.
Most people prefer familiar words to obscure terms. Familiar words make people’s lives easier when they read complex government information, so they’re more likely to read our messages and take recommended actions as a result.
As communicators, we should strive to keep our words familiar and to write for our audiences. Many of us come to know the communities we serve and to learn what matters to them. We deal with complex information every day, but our job is to make sense of it for the public.
