The English Blog

The butcher, the baker, and the person-centred transition facilitator

The economic gloom means a squeeze on salaries. But employers may try to keep staff on side with inflated job titles by way of compensation. BBC News reports:

Instead of "what do you do?" today this question may be phrased in a subtly different form: "what's your job title?" The answer may be as clear as mud, for 21st Century job titles can be a verbal minefield.

Job title inflation is everywhere. Last week the Plain English Campaign received a local authority job advert from a member of the public for a "person-centred transition facilitator". "We debated for hours what this means. It might be a social worker dealing with disabled children?" says a spokesman.

Other examples from its files include ambient replenishment controller and regional head of services, infrastructure and procurement. Also known as shelf stacker and caretaker.

And in her review of 2009, the Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway awarded job title of the year to a journalism student whose business card read "Life explorer, multimedia storyteller, experience architect". Full article >>

COMMENTS
English teacher sounds so dull. I'm changing my job title to "language acquisition facilitator".

RESOURCES
• Job Title Generator
• JobTitles.org (over 10,000 job titles with job descriptions)

Council hires 'core skills trainer' to beat jargon

From The Daily Telegraph:

Leeds City Council is using a “core skills trainer” to teach staff to simplify their language as part of a plain English campaign after its switchboard was flooded with members of the public confused by official documents they had been sent.

One report, which has since been removed from the council's intranet, contained a 176-word sentence that could have been trimmed to just 11 words without losing its original meaning.

More than 400 staff members have signed up for the half-day classes being offered under the plain English campaign, and the intranet now features a jargon-busting guide, giving tips on how to communicate clearly. Full story >>

The World in 2010: The Jargon of 2010

I'm currently reading the print edition of The World in 2010, The Economist's annual collection of predictions for the year ahead. All the articles are published online here. This piece about business jargon should interest linguists and business students:

Hard times beget harsh language. Reckless loans led to the credit crunch, then to meltdown. When the jargon of the 2008-09 recession wasn’t harsh, it was often mystifying: credit default swaps, collateralised debt obligations and quantitative easing. What vocabulary will executives need to familiarise themselves with next?

The recovery will spawn its own jargon in 2010. Policymakers will spend the year planning exit strategies—ways to withdraw from the markets and companies they rushed to rescue. Hopes of a sustainable recovery will depend on deleveraging by both consumers and firms, an effort to pay off the debt that piled up during the boom. The post-recession economy may have a different dynamic from the pre-crisis one; there is talk of an economic reset to a new normal. Full article >>

COMMENT
I can also recommend The Economist's wall calendar, which you can preview here.

Textspeak teens lack the right words for work

According to The Sunday Times, youngsters’ abbreviated forms of communication are hurting their chances of securing a job.

A generation of teenagers risk making themselves unemployable because they are using a vocabulary of about 800 words a day, according to the government’s first children’s communication czar.

They are avoiding using a broad vocabulary and complex words in favour of the abbreviated “teenspeak” of text messages, social networking sites and internet chat rooms. Jean Gross, the government’s new adviser on childhood language development, is planning a national campaign to prevent children failing in the classroom and the workplace because of their inability to express themselves.

She said: “Teenagers are spending more time communicating through electronic media and text messaging, which is short and brief. We need to help today’s teenagers understand the difference between their textspeak and the formal language they need to succeed in life — 800 words will not get you a job.” Full story >>

SEE ALSO
• A lexicon of teenspeak (BBC News)
• Teen speak dictionary for 'rents' (BBC News)
• Parentline Plus Jargon Buster (dictionary of 'teenglish' )