Young journalist colleague Kaustubh Kulkarni has
sent in the following:
Civil servants banned from using language that has
kept the comedy writers from the Thick Of It in gags for years
As the fictional permanent secretary Sir Humphrey
Appleby once said: “If you ask me for a straight answer, then I shall say that,
as far as we can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another
in terms of the average of departments, then in the final analysis it is
probably true to say, that at the end of the day, in general terms, you would
probably find that, not to put too fine a point on it, there probably wasn't
very much in it one way or the other.”
But no more.
Britain’s cadre of real life civil servants have
finally been banned from using the jargon that has kept the comedy writers from
Yes Minister to the Thick Of It in gags for years.
Officials have been issued with an online style
guide that tells them, for the first time, what unacceptable Whitehallese is.
Out goes ‘deliver’. Pizzas and post are delivered,
it points out, not abstract concepts like ‘improvements’ or ‘priorities’.
Officials can no long ‘drive’ anything out (unless
it is cattle) or ‘foster’ (unless it is children).
Tackling is also banned (unless Sir Humphrey or
Terri Coverley are playing rugby or football) while the ‘key’ should always be
in the lock.
Overall more than 30 terms of jargon that have
crept into Government announcements and policy documents over the years have
been placed off-limits.
There will be no more advancing, collaborating,
combating or pledging.
People will no longer be empowered.
Government will no longer facilitate while even ministers will
not be focusing on areas of policy.
The style guide has been created by the team who
put together the Government’s new website Gov.uk –
which aims to bring together every Government
service in a single format that is easy to navigate and use.
In the forward to the style guide the authors point
out that this aim will be negated if everything published if full of official
gobbledy gook.
“We lose trust from our users if we write
government ‘buzzwords’ and jargon,” they point out.
“Often, these words are too general and vague and
can lead to misinterpretation or empty, meaningless text. We can do without
these words.”
Sarah Richards, who worked on the guide, said plain
English was not the same a dumbing down.
“The style is about writing clearly, concisely and
without jargon. Everyone can benefit from simplicity,” she wrote on a blog
launching the site.
“Some people have previously seen this as ‘dumbing
down’ but being open and accessible to everyone isn’t ‘dumb’ – it’s our responsibility.”
But a quick glance at recent Government press
notices suggest that some officials still have something to learn.
Take this recent ‘news story’ from the Cabinet
Office - the department that is also responsible for Gov.uk.
“The government is establishing a Global
Learning Exchange on impact investment. Impact investment provides capital to
deliver both social and financial results.
“This multi-stakeholder exchange will focus on
sharing best practice on ‘what works’ in impact investing. It will provide a
shared platform to debate and create ideas as well as inviting new voices to
the field.
“Social impact investment has a critical role to
play in helping entrepreneurs around the world to identify sustainable
solutions to the most challenging social issues. The G8 Social Impact
Investment Forum represents an exciting point in the development of the field –
bringing together, for the first time, government, industry and civil society
leaders to identify ways to catalyse the global market.”
It makes Sir Humphrey sound erudite.
But Steve Jenner from Plain English Campaign said
any attempt to improve things was very welcome.
“For many years government has been presented to
the public in finest government departmental gobbledygook,” he said.
“The fact that much of this is unintentionally
hilarious suggests how bad things had become.
“Plain English Campaign applauds this attempt to
encourage clarity, though, and would be happy to assist any government
department in this.”
Tongue firmly in cheek a Cabinet Office Spokeswoman
said: “Going forward, we will be advancing a pledge to deliver and utilise
clearer language on our award-winning GOV.UK.
"We are keen to foster improved cooperation to
empower further the public and are delighted that the Independent has
recognised this drive to deploy and leverage a streamlined vocabulary.
"But seriously, we want to get better at this,
and the Content Guide is one of the reasons GOV.UK has over 1.3m users a
month.”
Jargon: What’s out
Ø Slimming down (processes don’t diet)
Ø Foster (unless it is children)
Ø Agenda (unless it is for a meeting)
Ø Commit/pledge (we’re either doing something or we’re not)
Ø Deliver (pizzas, post and services are delivered – not abstract concepts
like ‘improvements’ or ‘priorities’)
Ø Deploy (unless it is military or software)
Ø Dialogue (we speak to people)
Ø Key (unless it unlocks something. A subject/thing isn’t ‘key’ – it’s
probably ‘important’)
Ø Progress (as a verb – what are you actually doing?)
Ø Promote (unless you are talking about an ad campaign or some other
marketing promotion)
Ø Strengthening (unless it’s strengthening bridges or other structures)
Ø Tackling (unless it is rugby, football or some other sport)
Ø Transforming (what are you actually doing to change it?)
Ø Going forward (unlikely we are giving travel directions)
Source:
1 comment:
My dear Kiran,
Banning jargon is good for common people. But the serious problem with government jargon is not only of its own making.
Following the Thatcher era of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, govt depts have also co-opted private sector corporate jargon.
The time has come to also ban "corporate jargon" -- from the private business and corporate world. Look at the gobbledegook in financial annual reports of companies and in the business press!
That way we will be dealing with jargon in the public and -- private sectors!!!
Peace and love,
- Joe.
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