Making Sense of PR Speak – Part II

Last year, Alex wrote about the abundance of jargon that seems to find its way into considerable amounts of PR copy – with B2B PR being particularly afflicted by the jargon curse. With 2016 now firmly established, this is a good time to revisit the topic and have a look at some of the current phrases being ‘leveraged’ in the world of PR.

One of the biggest problems with using jargon and buzzwords is that it can completely ruin the tone of whatever you are writing. Surveys have found that jargon is an immediate irritant to a reader, and is something that people can even find intimidating. So even if the actual ‘thing’ your press release is announcing is interesting if it’s littered with jargon and buzzwords, readers (and that includes journalists) will instantly switch off. Here are a few more words to avoid:

• Amplify: This is predicted by one language consultancy to be the biggest buzzword of 2016, instead of using much more sensible synonyms, such as increase, improve or grow.
• Disrupt/Disruptive: In a similar way to the over use of ‘unique’, seemingly these days, everyone wants to be seen as doing something ‘disruptive’. If you genuinely think your technology or service is disruptive, then stand by it, but if it’s merely a product update or a new version of your software – how disruptive is it really?
• Buy-in: This means agreeing with each other or gaining someone’s interest, but instead ‘buy-in’ sounds vaguely sinister and as if you’ve had to bribe someone to show their interest.
• Robust (see also, resilient): I hold my hand up, I’ve been guilty of this one. ‘Robust’, often used to describe something like a software program, is one of those words that’s becoming so ubiquitous that’s it’s beginning to lose all meaning.
• Granular: Used instead of simply saying, in detail. Granular actually means consisting of small grains or particles, i.e. sand. It does not mean doing something thoroughly or comprehensively.

A lot of modern technology is already complex enough; the role of tech PR is to make this complexity simple so that it can be communicated simply to a range of audiences. Ultimately, journalists are writing for readers whose understanding of a particular technology will vary from those who know it in-depth, to those who have never heard of it. So if today’s short-on-time journalists have to read a bylined article, press release or comment multiple times to try and decipher it, they simply won’t use it. So whatever you find yourself writing – from a sentence-long comment to a 900-word byline, ditch the jargon and keep it simple.