Cut out the jargon

Whether it's in your/your client's team, company, or even industry, there'll no doubt be certain terms thrown around that mean something to you all but to anyone outside of this world, it's meaningless. This was the case for me during a recent interview I held with a senior person at a company for an article for the nationals. Throughout the interview they used terms that no-one outside of their team or industry would know, prompting me to constantly stop and ask what those terms meant. There was one word that was being said through the interview that meant something most of us would understand to mean but when I asked a question at the end of the interview about the use of X, she said actually, that word wasn’t what was meant in the Oxford Dictionary. It meant something very different. It was only because I asked a particular question at the end that I then knew that. Otherwise the piece would have included it referring to its original meaning, not the one used by the company.

Whether you are sending over comments, writing a press release, or speaking to a journalist, remember to cut out the jargon and use plain English. Or, if when you are prepping your client, remind them. Also remind them not to sound like they're giving a sales pitch to a client with lines that don’t really say or mean anything, rather than answering the questions.

For example:

ME: How do you plan to use AI in the future?

THEM: “We want to explore all elements of AI to help our customers so we can continue being the leading technology provider in our field - our mission is to be the best provider for all of our clients.”

Yes, sometimes it really is like interviewing a politician.

Drop me a line if you’d like more information or recommendations about media training.