Beware: acronyms and abbreviations can have multiple meanings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on September 7, 2021 I posted about Don’t AWE your audience by using Acronyms Without Explanations. Always define acronyms because they are a form of jargon. There is an excellent article by Neil M. Davis in Medical Writing magazine on December 2020 (Volume 29, Number 4, pages 16 to 19) titled Medical abbreviations with multiple meanings: A prescription for disaster.

 

For example, HD can mean Hansen Disease, Hodgkin Disease, or Huntington Disease. And NBM can mean Nothing by Mouth, No Bowel Movement, or Normal Bowel Movement. NE can mean No Effect, No Enlargement, or just Not Evaluated. The general link for that magazine (which has freely downloadable articles) is here.

 

My cartoon was modified from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Two useful library jargon phrases: Reader’s Advisory and Reference Interview

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes it helps to know insider jargon in order to find useful information, like for asking a librarian about a possible speech topic.

 

I found an accessible free downladable book by Reed Hepler and David Horalek titled Introduction to Library and Information Science. Both are at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. That book also can be downloaded here.

 Chapter 16 on Reader’s Advisory (pages 136 to 139) begins by describing how: 

“Reader's Advisory is a service that helps readers find appropriate recommendations based on their interests, reading level, and other factors. Each library has a unique method of managing Reader’s Advisory requests. Some systems incorporate Lexile ratings, which indicate the difficulty of understanding a particular book. These ratings are typically associated with age levels for a particular work. However, age should not be a determining factor when conducting Reader’s Advisory.”

There also is a long, excellent Wikipedia article on Reader’s Advisory. And Chapter 9 on Reference Librarianship (pages 84 to 91) describes a Reference Interview as follows on page 86: 

“The five parts of a reference interview are:

Initial question: User asks the question to reference librarian/technician.

Clarification of question: Librarian starts a dialog in an effort to clarify the real needs of the user and to try to obtain more information.

Translating the question into potential library sources: Librarian takes the lead by suggesting potential sources and determining what has already been consulted, and then they devise a search strategy.

The search: The reference librarian or technician leads the user through the search of appropriate sources. At the same time, they implement point-of-use instruction with each resource consulted so that the user gains some knowledge for future independent searching.

Follow-up: As the search progresses, the librarian should ask the patron, ‘Is this what you are looking for?’ to be sure that the search is on the right track. When leaving the patron, the librarian should always add, ‘Let me know if you need more help.’ This lets the user know that they can come back for more help.”

There is another Wikipedia article on the Reference Interview. And there is a 7-page pdf article at the National Archive at Boston titled Guidelines of the Successful Reference Interview from American Library Association.

 

Also, the American Library Association has a store web page describing the third edition of a book from 2019 (with 344-pages) titled Conducting the Reference Interview.

 

On February 23, 2020 I blogged about Finding speech topics and doing research. In that post I suggested that:

 

“…the best way to learn is to make an appointment with a reference librarian at your public library. Tell him or her your topic, and you can learn where to look, and get suggestions for better search terms.”

 

An image of a librarian came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Jargon Buster is a useful AI tool for speechwriters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently I ran across a useful artificial intelligence (AI) tool for speechwriting from word.studio called the Jargon Buster. To use it, first you paste your text into a box. Then you select one of two options:

 

1] List jargon terms and suggest alternatives.

2] Rewrite the entire text and replace jargon with more accessible language.

 

The image of a corn husking machine came from the January 10, 1857 issue of Scientific American magazine at Wikimedia Commons. 

 

 

Skutnik is speechwriter jargon for someone who gets acknowledged by the President in his State of the Union address

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An article by David Murray at Pro Rhetoric on May 25, 2023 titled “The Lehrman Landing” – and Other Jargon Speechwriters Should Use Constantly includes the following jargon term:

 

“Skutnik. On January 13, 1982, a low-level government worker named Lenny Skutnik saved a woman from drowning after a plane crashed in the icy Potomac River. President Reagan invited Skutnik to attend the State of the Union Address a couple weeks later, and called him out during the speech as the kind of American hero we need more of, these days. Such call-outs to ordinary citizens became a staple of State of the Union speeches that continues to this day. By the speechwriters who stage them, they are called ‘Skutniks.’ “

 

Wikipedia has both a page about Lenny Skutnik and a List of Lenny Skutniks. There also is an article from the Congressional Budget Office on June 3, 2010 titled Lenny Skutnik, CBO’s Most Famous Employee, Retires.

 

 Congressional Research Service has Report R44770 on January 9, 2019 titled History, Evolution, and Practices of the President’s State of the Union Address: Frequently Asked Questions. It has a section titled When Did the Tradition of Acknowledging Guests Sitting in the House Gallery Begin? that explains:

 

“The chief executive frequently invites citizens who have distinguished themselves in some field of service or endeavor to be personal guests in the gallery. President Ronald Reagan began the tradition in 1982 by acknowledging Lenny Skutnik in his speech. Since then, most State of the Union addresses have included the direct mention of at least one presidential guest who was in attendance. Presidential speechwriters often refer to these guests as ‘Lenny Skutniks.’ Usually, the achievements or programs for which the President publicly salutes these guests also serve to underscore some major element of the message. For example, guests have included civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, NBA star and humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo, former Treasury Secretary and Senator Lloyd Bentsen, baseball great Henry ‘Hank’ Aaron, and numerous military servicemembers and veterans.”

 

A recent article by Sherri Kolade at Ragan PR Daily on February 20, 2024 titled Use this decades-old speechwriting technique to create powerful messages today describes:

 

“Reagan’s speechwriter Aram Bakshian, Jr. said that he ‘wrote Lenny Skutnik into the finale’ of Reagan’s speech to play up the hero aspect, according to the Miller Center.

 

‘I wrote the passage that created the hero in the gallery ploy, which unfortunately has been milked to death since and overdone. I almost regret it.’

 

While Bakshian, Jr. may be sick of the tactic, it’s been used so frequently because it works. These Skutniks often resonate with audiences as their stories tug at heartstrings.

 

Michael Ricci, former director of communications for then-Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and former speechwriter and director of communications for John Boehner and Paul Ryan, told PR Daily that speechwriters can use Skutniks to connect the dots with audiences and their sdesire to relate to a hero in a speech.”

 

The image came from a YouTube video of Ronald Reagan Acknowledging Lenny Skutnik 1982.

 

 

Howdahell is jargon for sprinkling local knowledge into a speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A blog post by David Murray at Writing Boots on May 23, 2023 is titled Yo, Writer: Yes, Your Best Prose is Jargon-Free. But Your Negotiations with Non-Writers Should Be Jargon-y. One item of jargon he mentioned is:

 

“Howdahell: A term for a little local knowledge casually sprinkled into a speech, usually near the beginning. A commencement speaker can bring the crowd to its feet simply by making reference to having a beer at the local college watering hole. ‘Howdahell does Condoleeza Rice know about Suds on State?”

 

He also said it at Pro Rhetoric on May 25, 2023 in an article titled “The Lehrman Landing” – and Other Jargon Speechwriters Should Use Constantly. I blogged about two jargon items in that article. One was in a post on June 13, 2025 titled The Four Part Close for a speech is also known as “The Lehrman Landing.” Another was in a post on June 19, 2025 titled Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a framework for persuasive speeches.

 

Robert Lehrman’s 2010 book, The Political Speechwriter’s Companion: A guide for writers and speakers says on page 147 that howdahell was invented by Eric Schnure. Another article by Elena Veatch at The Campaign Workshop on August 19, 2019 titled Speechwriting: 7 Questions with Eric Schnure has Eric explain:

 

“I like to say that every speech should have a ‘howdahell’ moment. That’s where the audience says to themselves, ‘How the hell did she/he know that about me, my school, my town, my hopes and fears?’ I don’t mean that in a Big Brother kind of way. Instead, it's about creating a moment of community and commonality. When a speaker achieves that - it can be powerful stuff.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will get to know our audience and find a howdahell by asking some of them questions. On January 8, 2024 I blogged about The 5Ws and 1H (or Kipling Method) for planning public speaking or other communication.

 

My devil cartoon was adapted from one at OpenClipArt.

 

 

Being a tour guide can make you a better speaker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In her The Master Communicator Blog on July 15, 2024 Rosemary Ravinal has a post titled How tour guiding can make you a better speaker. She says to do a half-dozen things:

 

Tell unforgettable stories

Delight diverse audiences

Build confidence

Improve non-verbal communication

Find your unique style

Handle questions with grace

 

An article by Karen Friedman on January 3, 2024 titled What business communicators can learn from tour guides discussed the topics of having a connection, being memorable, being engaging, using differentiation and creating trust.

 

There also is another article about tour guides by Barnaby Davies on pages 22 to 24 in the December 2018 issue of Toastmaster magazine titled Entertaining Travelers Around the World.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do these three items have in common? They all ignore the broader jargon for describing a tour guide. Back on December 19, 2010 I blogged about Heritage interpretation and public speaking. Interpreters are people who explain natural or cultural resources to visitors at places like parks, nature centers, museums, zoos, botanical gardens, aquariums, and tour companies. As shown above via a Venn diagram, a tour guide is at the intersection of public speaking and heritage interpretation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you search under heritage interpretation, you will find there are organizations with much useful information. In the U.S. there is the National Association for Interpretation (NAI), which publishes two magazines, Legacy and the Journal of Interpretation Research. Most articles and issues are at their web site and for members only. There is a long article by Marc J. Stern and Robert B. Powell in the Journal of Interpretation Research for 2013 (Volume 18, number 2 pages 9 to 44) titled What leads to better visitor outcomes in live interpretation? For it they surveyed 3,603 visitors from 312 live interpretive programs at U. S. National Parks. As shown above, Figure 1 describes fifteen best practices.

 

Interpretation Canada (IC) has an eighty-page 2015 book titled The Interpreter’s Big Book of Disasters. Their IC blog has a post by Munju Ravindra on June 12, 2019 titled IC Blog: Lessons from the Interpreter’s Book of Disasters: Intertidal Stranding. On July 3, 2024 I blogged about how A public speaker can tell us a story about being in a seemingly dangerous place. But a heritage interpreter can actually take us there.

 

Interpret Europe has a forty-page ebook by Thorsten Ludwig titled The Interpretive Guide – Sharing Heritage with People (2nd edition, 2015).

 

An image showing a tour guide and wall painting came from 3DeyeNET at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Drawbacks of jargon monoxide (hollow and impenetrable babble)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At my friendly local public library, on the new books shelf, I found the 2024 book by Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao titled The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder. Chapter 7, from page 180 to page 201 is titled Jargon Monoxide and subtitled On the Drawbacks and (Limited) Virtues of Hollow and Impenetrable Babble.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They divide Jargon Monoxide into four types, as are shown above in a table: Convoluted Crap, Meaningless Bullshit, In-Group Lingo, and Jargon Mishmash Syndrome. Then they have a detailed discussion of jargon.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What should we do instead? When writing (including speechwriting) we should use powerful words that prompt others to act, to persist, and to generate imaginative solutions, as shown above in a colorized version of a table from pages 198 and 199.

 

“As our table shows, these hallmarks include using concrete language rather than vague words and phrases, talking in the present tense rather than the past tense, using terms that suggest people have chosen to engage in friction fixing rather than are forced to do so, using sensory metaphors that are linked to bodily experiences, and talking about friction fixing as a journey rather than a destination.”

 

Greater Communication Space is amazing business jargon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Murray, who edits the magazine Vital Speeches of the Day, writes a blog called Writing Boots. His post on April 9, 2024 is titled In the communication space, we think outside the dots when it comes to the language piece. He said:

 

“Generally, businesspeople never use a specific term when a vague one is available. It keeps people from pinning us down.

 

‘Business’ itself was once a hazy enough term, until someone thought to call it ‘space.’ So, I’m no longer in the communication business, I’m in the ‘communication space.’ It doesn’t get any more far out than that, man.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But you can get even more far out. The University of Southern California (USC) has a web page for their USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism about their Master of Arts program titled Public Relations and Advertising (MA) Fall 2024 which bombastically states:

 

“The MA in Public Relations and Advertising provides students with applied knowledge and skills for a career in the greater communication space, including, but not limited to, public relations, advertising, digital communication, influencer relations, brand activations, corporate communications, etc.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, there also is a very specific engineering meaning for the similar term Communications Space. I found it on a web page at NextMileTech titled One-Touch Make-Ready:

 

“The National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) is the American National Standard for the safety of power and communication utility systems. The fundamental safety recommendation by the NESC is the separation of the power space and communications spaces on utility poles.

 

The communications space is a section of a utility pole’s usable space, allowing low-voltage attachments such as fiber, broadband, telephone, copper, and coaxial cables. The communications space is the lowest space on the pole, located forty inches below the lowest attachment of the supply space.”

 

An image of a utility pole came from HighVoltage 5576 at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Avoid using stilted business jargon words and phrases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An article by Kathleen Davis at Fast Company on December 12, 2022 titled This is the worst business jargon of 2022 provides a horrible example:

 

“We need to disrupt this with some thought leadership: I want to empower you to think outside the box, let’s blue sky some ideas beyond the low hanging fruit. We need something that will really move the needle. I want to circle back on those ideas that we double clicked on last week and took offline. I think we had a lot of alignment on the ways to create synergy so now we just need to get boots on the ground so we can leverage it. Who has the bandwidth to start growth hacking?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another article by Anna Dobson at Preply on January 3, 2023 titled Business jargon: a survival guide for the office has several tables, four of which are summarized above: ten most and least frequently used, and ten most and least annoying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A third article by Suzanne Lucas at Inc. on May 9, 2023 titled 50 Most annoying business phrases of 2023 revealed has the fifty shown above in a long list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a fourth article by Rob Phillips at Platform Executive, originally on January 28, 2021 and titled The 120 most annoying business phrases and buzzwords of 2022 (updated for 2023) has the even longer list shown above. How many of those words or phrases have you been using?

 

An image of a jester on stilts came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Do you suffer from the heartbreak of aibohphobia, the fear of palindromes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines aibohphobia as:

 

“Fear of palindromes (words, verses, sentences, or numbers that read the same backward or forward).”

 

It also is a palindrome, and it comes from taking the last five letters of phobia, reversing them to form a prefix, and adding phobia as the suffix. The word appears under Jocular and Fictional Phobias in the Wikipedia article List of Phobias. Wikipedia says this word is a piece of computer humor from the 1981 The Devil’s DP Dictionary. But OptimistMinds has an apparently serious article titled Fear of palindromes (a brief overview).

 

There is an article on palindromes by James A. Fussell in the Chicago Tribune on January 4, 2002 titled Sit on a potato pan, Otis: We are the palindrome generation. He says that, since the word palindrome isn’t a palindrome, it should be replaced by the word palinnilap – which is one. Another article by Jonathan Becher at Manage By Walking Around on March 20, 2022 is titled Fun with palindromes, without aibohphobia.

 

There even is a song titled Aibohphobia by Shakey Graves, whose lyrics are here. 

 

I previously have blogged about the heartbreaks of both robophobia and scriptophobia.

 

Words that make you sound smarter or more pretentious

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Preply there is an article by Matt Zajechowski on March 9, 2022 titled Words that make you sound smarter, according to Americans. It reports results from a survey of 1,916 Americans done on October 14 and 15 of 2021. There are three Top Twenty lists: A] Which words make someone sound smarter? B] Which words do people use the most to seem smarter? and C] Which words most make someone sound pretentious?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Results from all three lists are collected above in a single table. Ten words you should consider using (listed on B] but not on C]) are: adept, adequate, amicable, anomaly, charisma, coincide, condone, contemplate, exacerbate, and impeccable. The other ten pretentious ones (listed on both B] and C]) are: aesthetic, ambiguous, articulate, audacious, bonafide, brevity, candor, capitalize, caveat, and concur. Why do all these words begin with a letter in the first half of the alphabet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five things that people feel about complex vocabulary are shown above via a bar chart. Nearly equal percentages were either annoyed (36%) or impressed (35%). An infographic in the article collects some other negatives from fancy talk. 54% have actively tried to end a conversation with someone who used unnecessarily complex vocabulary. 43% believe someone with a complex vocabulary is trying to sound smarter than they are, and 28% assume that someone with a complex vocabulary is insecure.  

 

A cartoon image was modified from this at Openclipart.

 

Outdated or overused jargon words and phrases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At CNBC make it on December 26, 2021 there is an article by Kathy and Ross Petras titled Want to sound more intelligent? Avoid these 15 words and phrases that are ‘embarrassingly outdated,’ say grammar experts. Those 15 are:

 

Bandwith

End-user

Granular

Hack

‘I did a thing’

‘It is what it is’

Influencer

Jab

The new normal

Pivot

‘Take it offline’

Thought leader

‘We remain cautious’

WFH (work from home)

Zooming

 

Lucy Kellaway also discussed granular and said it should be replaced by detailed. Back on December 16, 2015 I blogged about her Guffipedia in a post titled Jargon and guff. On January 4, 2017 I blogged about Tired sports jargon – please don’t say pivot when another word would be better.

 

Another article at Acrolinx on May 8, 2021 by Cynthia Spiers is titled 16 Overused words and phrases and what to say instead. They are:

 

At the end of the day

Bandwidth

Bang for your buck

Content is king

Get granular

Get the ball rolling

Get your ducks in a row

Giving 110%

Hit the ground running

Keep your eye on the ball

Leverage

A no-brainer

On the same page

Out of left field

Synergize

Think outside the box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cynthia’s list has two ancient baseball phrases, ‘Keep your eye on the ball’ and ‘Out of left field.’ (Bandwidth and granular are on both lists). There also is a useful article at the Buckley School on September 9, 2021 titled How to rescue presentations drowning in jargon.

 

The 1895 baseball poster came from the Library of Congress.

 

Don’t AWE your audience by using Acronyms Without Explanations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At her Maniactive blog on August 9, 2021 there is an excellent brief post by Laura Bergells titled AWE: Acronyms Without Explanation!. Using an acronym without defining it first is an awful use of jargon. It indicates you think that is NMJ (Not My Job) but it is. On July 5, 2019 I blogged about how The first time you use an acronym you need to define it.

 

Acronyms sometimes have multiple meanings. Recently many people would say that BLM obviously means Black Lives Matter. But in states like Nevada, Utah, and Idaho the older meaning is the federal Bureau of Land Management. In Nevada 81.1% of land is federally owned. Of that 83.9% is by that BLM and 10.1% % is U.S. Forest Service. In Utah 66.5% of land is federally owned. Of that 65.2% is BLM and 23.4% % is U.S. Forest Service. Here in Idaho 61.7% of land is federally owned. Of that 62.7% is U.S. Forest Service, and 35.6% is BLM. 

 

The image was adapted from a cartoon of a woman presenting a sales flow chart at Wikimedia Commons.