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Jargon is obscure (specialized technical or scientific vocabulary) and often pretentious language characterized by circumlocution and long words. Jargon effectively clouds what an author wishes to say, and should be avoided. The following sentence is an example of jargon:
Many contrived words have recently been coined:
assessability | de-hire |
identicability | definitize |
futurize | performability |
These contrived words have little place in scientific writing, however common their use may be in conversation.
Many reports are littered with the expressions such as there is, there are, there were, implying, in most instances, either careless writing or loose thinking. Generally, such words can be avoided and the sentences rewritten in more compact form. The statement 'In most specimens there is more biotite than hornblende', can be rewritten to advantage as Most specimens contain more biotite than hornblende. Similarly, 'There are eight veins exposed on this property' should be rewritten as Eight veins are exposed on this property.
Use the following verb forms sparingly:
cave in | divide up | make up | reported on |
climb up | empty out | meet with | split up |
close down | flow down | operated on | start up |
dealt in |
Usually the extra word is redundant, or such compound expressions can be replaced by single words, as shown in italics in the following examples:
The following are other examples of unnecessary words (shown in quotation marks):
Change: 'good lighting conditions were absent at many outcrops' to light conditions were poor at many outcrops; and 'bedded to completely unbedded' to bedded to massive.
The following sentence illustrates the use of unnecessary words (in quotation marks) and the advantage gained by their elimination (the words in parentheses are added to complete the sentence):
The following are other overused words that can become pretentious or irritating (shown with alternatives in italics):
2005-11-21 |