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Strong disagree. Using jargon like "upskill" is indicative of the kind of thinking that leads to bad writing. It's a very easy to habit to fall into where you

Strong disagree. Using jargon like "upskill" is indicative of the kind of thinking that leads to bad writing. It's a very easy to habit to fall into where you "write" by just sort of stitching together the nearest cliches, phrases, and jargon that come to mind. It's how we often talk and how we often write. Unfortunately, writing like that is never good. By being a lazy pastiche of the familiar, it swaddles what you're actually trying to say in layers of non-information carrying fluff. To improve your writing, you have to break that habit. You have to train yourself to introduce deliberate thought into the step between "vague idea in my head" and "linear sequence of words". When you force yourself to cut out the jargon, that inconvient friction gives you a moment's pause to remind yourself to think about what you're trying to say. Also, jargon usally has negative value. It says the same thing as simpler non-jargon words, but mixes some in-group signalling with it. In-group signalling can be a useful positive signal ("Trust me, I know what I'm talking about because you can see that I've absorbed the culture") but it can also be alienating for readers that don't feel like comfortable members of the tribe. I try to use a little jargon here and there just to reassure people that I know the lingo and context of the local culture but otherwise I mostly focus on saying what I mean.

scubbo 4y ago
I agree with almost all of what you're saying, but I still stand by the point that _simply_ advising someone to "ban those words" is not helpful, especially when that guidance is delivered without the (correct and insightful!) description you gave of _why_ that jargon might be a "writing smell". A good writer can write meaningful, clear, useful communication which still uses buzzwords (they'd probably choose not to, but they _could_); a bad writer who is _only_ advised to avoid them will reproduce the same empty sentences with different words. Telling someone not to do something without telling them _why_ is the kind of thing you do to a child you're trying to keep safe, not something you do to an adult you're trying to train and...upskill ;)
- deleted 4y ago
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- scubbo 4y ago
  More concisely - there is correlation, but not necessarily causation. Someone who uses these phrases will _probably_ also be someone who doesn't put much thought into their communication; but merely removing those phrases will not automatically, in-and-of-itself, cause them to become a better communicator.
  - munificent 4y ago
    I do think that even if they make no other changes, removing the jargon in favor of plain English will improve the quality of their writing. Maybe not as much as actually learning to reflect on what they're trying to say, but enough to be worth doing.

scubbo 4y ago

I agree with almost all of what you're saying, but I still stand by the point that _simply_ advising someone to "ban those words" is not helpful, especially when that guidance is delivered without the (correct and insightful!) description you gave of _why_ that jargon might be a "writing smell". A good writer can write meaningful, clear, useful communication which still uses buzzwords (they'd probably choose not to, but they _could_); a bad writer who is _only_ advised to avoid them will reproduce the same empty sentences with different words. Telling someone not to do something without telling them _why_ is the kind of thing you do to a child you're trying to keep safe, not something you do to an adult you're trying to train and...upskill ;)

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
scubbo 4y ago
More concisely - there is correlation, but not necessarily causation. Someone who uses these phrases will _probably_ also be someone who doesn't put much thought into their communication; but merely removing those phrases will not automatically, in-and-of-itself, cause them to become a better communicator.
- munificent 4y ago
  I do think that even if they make no other changes, removing the jargon in favor of plain English will improve the quality of their writing. Maybe not as much as actually learning to reflect on what they're trying to say, but enough to be worth doing.