Five Examples of Development Jargon That Make Your Reader’s Head Hurt
And mine too, whether I am your editor or your audience …
First, what qualifies as “jargon” exactly? “I know it when I see it,” I am tempted to answer, echoing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s 1964 definition of hard core pornography. We all recognize it when we see it, whether we are the ones using it or trying to decipher it.
However, since a big part of my job as an editor is pushing for precision through language, that defintion ain’t gonna cut it.
So how about this: jargon is the “soulless, devitalized, pretentious means we use to confuse words with things, opinions with truths, intentions with results,” taken from one of my favorite must-reads of all times for not only development professionals but everyone else who writes for work. (Looking at you business world people …)
Anyway, this isn’t an extended essay on jargon, just a short-list (one might say rant) of culprits that have been driving me nuts lately in my work as a professional shaper and pruner of development copy.
1) Leverage
Why this passion for a truly soulless word that evokes memories of rapacious greed, destructive hubris, wholly ignorant and/or reckless speculation, and purposeful obfuscation of meaning to hide the reality of what was really going down? Doesn’t anyone remember that to be “leveraged” or, even worse, “highly leveraged” was a very. very. bad thing not so long ago? Because beginning in about 2007 all those “highly leveraged” banks began to “deleverage” and then … well here we are today, still dealing with the fall-out of one of the greatest financial meltdowns in capitalist history.
In fact, some of the biggest adopters of “leverage” are the very development and aid organizations who have seen the money in their coffers dwindle even as their work load has increased, thanks to that meltdown’s lasting effects on donors. These days, “leverage” is used by practitioners in the international development and aid world to mean anything from “take advantage of,” to “multiply,” to … wait for it … “do something.”
For example, “I am leveraging my opportunity to post content as a way to kill the word leverage.”
Meanwhile, “leverage” was originally coined as a noun since as a verb it makes no sense. You see, there already exists a verb form of leverage, which would be “to lever.” As in, “Could we possibly lever ‘leverage’ out of the development world’s lingua franca once and for all?”
If you do insist on using leverage as a verb, however, do be sure to alternate it with its number one synonym, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary: “exploit.”
2) Capacity Building (also Capacity Development)
My biggest issue with jargon is not the fact that it almost always comes from the multi-syllabic Latin half of the English language (as opposed to the more direct and less fancy-pants Germanic half) but that its use almost always leads to a lack of precision.
“Capacity building,” and its Siamese twin “capacity development,” are a great example of what happens when an empty term is substituted for meaning. I am not saying don’t ever use this phrase, since I realize it is the kind of shorthand jargon that donors like to see in their donor reports, but do be sure to follow up with a precise description of what, exactly, is being developed or built. Did you train staff members of some government agency or another in some kind of important skill? Did you provide them with computers, or software, and then train them on how to use these lovely gifts? Did you give a man a fishing pole, teach him how to bait and cast it, and then provide him with the off-grid, solar-powered eco-stove to cook that bad boy fish up?
When you don’t tell me, the reader, exactly what you mean by this term (and many others like it), then I, the ignorant if educated layperson reader, am going to come up with the details on my own. And frankly you don’t want that, because I can tell you my own personal default visual of “capacity building” is of someone constructing a giant lego robot man, brick by brick. A Lego Golem for Good, if you will. (This may or may not be related to the fact that I am the mother of a seven year old, but you get my point.)
3) Catalyze
Are there chemicals involved? No? Then do not use it please. What you mean to say is “to bring about,” or perhaps simply “to make.” Let’s bring about change in the lives of people, not catalyze it or them. That’s what happens in meth labs.
4) Technical Assistance
When I first began as a writer and editor in the world of international development (i.e. working for a UN agency), this term would come across my desk regularly, and every time I would entertain the image of a hard-working, well-meaning nerd rooting around a computer mainframe (whatever that is) wielding wrenches and screwdrivers while little bits of stray coil and bolts come popping out everywhere.
It took awhile before it dawned on me that the writer often meant something else entirely. For example, “technical assistance” could mean “donating a bunch of computers and then showing people how to use them” (see: “capacity building”). Or it could mean “we lend you our staff to do a particular job since you don’t have the expertise to do it yourself.” Sometimes it means “I, as the writer, have no idea what actually happened in the course of this project, or what the concrete results were, so I am going to wing it and say our organization provided technical assistance.”
The point being, when we use the term “technical assistance” we are once again obscuring the real meaning of the help provided to people or institutions. Or else we are hiding the fact we have no idea what that help consisted of. Either way, another missed chance to communicate the important work your organization is doing.
5) Empower
I could never quite put my finger on why “empower” made me so uneasy, aside from the fact that, as usual, it is pretty vague in meaning and content. Then I read this Forbes list of the most annoying jargon in the business world and they pretty much hit the nail on the head when they called it “the most condescending transitive verb ever.”
6) Impacts (Yes it’s a BONUS! You deserve it for getting this far.)
Not actually a word in the English language. Impact, singular, however is a word, and one may use it as both a verb and a noun, although sparingly. Because: affect (v), influence (v), effect (n), influence (n).
Also made up: IMPACTFUL. Not a word people. Not a word. Effective: Now THAT’S a word!
In closing, I trust this list has been impactful and will empower you to deleverage yourself of the overuse of … eh, never mind.
Here’s a Quick n Dirty Recap Instead:
Leverage=Evil Overlords of Money
Capacity Building=Golem Lego Superhero
Catalyze=Crystal Meth Production
Technical Assistance=Nerds with Wrenches
Empower=Annoying and Condescending
Impacts=Beginning of the End of the English Language
Learn more about my work at www.goodstoryeditorial.com or contact me at megan.cossey@gmail.com
