Lingo

I've received my first-term schedule and on it is a class in Business Communication. I know better than to take business communication for granted, but I still think it's funny that such a class is required.

I've always done well with language. I do admit my own shortcomings, which are the shortcomings I see the most in the business world. We are so set on firing out the answer, hitting send on the email to respond to the issue at hand, that we just spew verbiage onto the screen and scan for auto-grammar and spell-check flags. We don't always re-read what we're saying for logic, tone, and nuance. We don't stop to consider what assumptions we are making in our thinking process and take in to account that others may not make those same assumptions.

There's also a tendency to throw in words for effect. I've been around long enough to see certain phrases come and go. These are words that serve mostly as filler, and are used by some more than others, generally to pad out conversations and sound more authoritative and convincing. One of my co-workers is currently fond of saying "X, Y, things of that nature" where X and Y may be two totally unrelated concepts, or may in fact be the only two concepts relevant to a particular conversation. In fact, I've seen at least one meeting where someone asked what else might apply besides X and Y, forcing my co-worker to stammer and backpedal, admitting that indeed, X and Y were the only two relevant items.

Some people go for alliteration and repetition. In my line of work, the phrase 'rack and stack' gets used a lot to refer to installing servers in a data center. Half the people I work with can only say 'racked and stacked' instead of 'installed'. It makes for a sense of working with refugees from a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Or, they like to say 'whack-whack' instead of 'slash-slash' when giving out URLs. It's confusing to non-techies.

Good communication requires using words with standardized definitions, and applying the correct word to the correct concept. It also requires constructing simple sentences that are easy to follow. Most importantly, however, it requires applying critical analysis to eliminate redundant or unnecessary clauses. Even for those who are experienced and know how to write well, Business Communication is a practice that must be maintained on a regular basis. It cannot simply be set aside and taken for granted.