Bite Size Comms

As professional communicators, it is important to use words that our audiences fully understand. We are responsible for the language we use as it is often intended to influence the attitudes, opinions and behaviours of other people. 

When I joined the Foreign Office many decades ago, I was given a guide on words to use and words not to use in writing. It told me never to use ‘I am writing’ – you are obviously writing something! That phrase is still much used in the public sector to begin a letter. Never use ambiguous or emotional language, like ‘I am happy that’. The Foreign Office word to use in its place was ‘glad’. Never use tabloid journalism’s colloquial language, ‘What a cock up’! I was given a slim book on plain English. I still have it some 40 years later. I think that using Plain English should be mandatory skills training for all employees.

I know of some internal communicators who see their role as rewriting the management speak of their leaders for consumption by staff — translating technical language and jargon into words that all colleagues would understand. For a while, I had no idea what ‘onboarding’ meant. Is this something that Ryanair does before every flight? Then there is the commonly used term ‘dropped’. I honestly thought it meant that the product had been cancelled, not the opposite, that it had been released!

Gladly, inclusivity in our language is much better understood by communicators today. The CIPR produced an excellent short guide to inclusive language last year. If you are not familiar with this, then please find it online. It focuses on the unconscious bias that we use against people outside of our sphere of experience, especially people with impairments or disabilities. On accessibility, do consider whether your audience speaks English fluently. Many may use English as a foreign language and misunderstand nuances. As someone who has lived much of my adult life in foreign countries, I have direct experience of what it is like to grapple with a new language, with a few embarrassing mistakes made along the way!

Politicians spend much time and money on phrases they hope will win them support and, ultimately, power. They trust that their words and phrases become commonly used language. Unfortunately, many phrases have a negative connotation. Take, for example, the awful ‘illegal immigrant’. Sorry, a human being cannot be illegal. A much better term is ‘refugee’ or  ‘undocumented migrant’. Less emotionally-charged. Oh, the government ‘scored an own goal’ when it frequently talked about ‘creating a hostile environment for migrants’. It comes across as sinister and racist, and well, it is nasty.

English is a living language, forever changing. It is important to recognise as communicators that our audience’s use of the language is changing. Yes, more Americanisms are used nowadays. New words appear. I think the FT is pushing for ‘enshittification’ to be a common word to describe Facebook/Meta this year. Yes, the FT. Check that one out if you have no idea what I am referring to. I think it is funny as I really do not like Meta and its business practices. 

However, it is the overuse of opaque terminology that I would like to focus on. Let’s look for a minute on its use when describing sustainability. Audiences clearly comprehend some terms. For example, ‘recycling’, ‘single-use plastics’, and ‘locally sourced’ are all understood words. Even the simple ’responsible business’ shows intent. But truthfully, how many people fully understand terms like ‘net zero’, ‘carbon neutral’, ‘food miles’, ‘carbon offsetting’, ‘ESG’ or even the simple ‘green’? We need to explain what we mean when using terminology. And it is unnecessary and rather pretentious to say, ‘make clear’ or ‘going forward’. A day doesn’t pass without hearing those two meaningless phrases!

One can have fun with language in communication to grab someone’s attention. Or use metaphors to describe situations so that people understand (yep, I’m thinking about Jonathan Van-Tam during those pandemic briefings on TV). It is about understanding our audience and what they want from our communications. However, the serious people who talk and write gobbledygook while trying to demonstrate their expertise – beware!

[Image: Unsplash]