Wednesday 24 March 2010

The annual list of words that shouldn’t be used by the public sector to talk to people has today been published by the Local Government Association.

The latest list of 250 words has been taken from the European Union, central government, quangos, regional government, business management speak and public relations phrases. Council leaders are concerned that in the midst of such a tough financial climate a failure by the public sector to explain to people the benefits from what they pay in taxes could make the difference between an individual staying afloat or going bankrupt.

The list includes new words such as:

* Trialogue
* Wellderly
* Goldfish bowl facilitated conversation
* Tonality
* Webinar
* Under-capacitated
* Clienting
* Disbenefits

The previous list of non words included:

* Taxonomy
* Rebaselining
* Mainstreaming
* Holistic governance
* Contestability
* Predictors of beaconicity
* Synergies

Just as it would be impossible for two IT professionals to speak to each other without using technical talk, it would be impossible for public sector experts to avoid using a degree of jargon. However, the LGA Group believes that while there is a place for technical language to be used between experts, jargon must be removed from documents and publications that are aimed at the public.

See the full list here

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