A few weeks ago I mentioned the International Development Jargon Detector. In an effort to make this blog more inclusive, and build blogging capacity among the stakeholders of this site, I said that if someone graphed different aid organizations against one another on the jargon-meter, I would happily blog that.
The Economics That Really Matters blog is holding me accountable, and the beneficiary of that is intern Jeong Hyun Lee, who made many interesting graphs, including the figure above. Strategically or not, IFPRI appears to be the worst offender. I trust it will have the desired impact, which is for none of you to use these words in your writing.
5 Responses
The Economics That Really Matters blog is holding me accountable, and the beneficiary of that is intern Jeong Hyun Lee, who made many interesting graphs, including the figure above.
golu dolls
golu dolls
Jargons can be game changer. If you are the boss, one person is talking is a very casual manner and the other one makes use of jargons, who would impress you? I am sure the second one will
Is accountable really jargon, doesn’t it depend on the context on whether there is a system for holding people to account or just throwing the word in to a sentence?
To defend us at IFPRI at least a little bit, the report chosen is really not an IFPRI “flagship report” but rather a report for one of our two CGIAR research programs that is targeted not so much at the general public but at donors and partners.
The better choice would have been the “Global Food Policy Report.” That said, the post is an impressive piece of work by a HS student!
And I’ll be letting both the director of A4NH and our Communications division know…
As a translator for development organizations, I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read this. And imagine, we have to *translate the jargon from one language to another,* while maintaining the jargon. I love my job, but this is priceless!