Business English Outside the Box. Business Jargon and Abbreviations in Business Communication

CCN1006 English for Academic Studies (Business) II

Name of assignment: Task 1 Case Report and Response

Class group number: B23

Student name: Tam Hoi Ching

Student number: 15050350A

Date of submission:14 March, 2016

Total word count: 445 words

The article ‘Business English outside the Box. Business Jargon and Abbreviations in Business communication’ mentioned some consequences of using jargon and abbreviations (Anamaria-Mirabela and Monica-Ariana,2014 ).

There are three main concepts in the article. Firstly, communication style was chosen according to the audiences. Otherwise, choosing the wrong way to present may lead to communication problems. The authors stated that the use of jargon and abbreviations may be useful internally, but not for external as misunderstandings were found apparently. Secondly, the authors mentioned the definitions of jargon and abbreviations and the problems of using them. Jargon reduces the efficiency of communication and abbreviations that are unable to let the audiences know the expected meaning. Lastly, there are a few examples to illustrate the business jargon and abbreviations was commonly used in daily life. Annoyance resulted because the phrases have unlike meanings in business world and accustomed usage.

I agree the abbreviations and jargon may cause external users misunderstood some ideas as they have several meanings. For instance, Anamaria-Mirabela and Monica-Ariana (2014) have stated four meanings of PM in the business world, like Performance Management and Procurement Management. In contrast, PM means “after noon” when we are describing the time (Khodorkovsky,2014). This example illustrates the misinterpretation of abbreviations. However, I don’t agree that they slow down the communication process within an organization. Employees use the organizational jargon to communicate instead of using explanatory sentences. Obviously, there are a consensus of the meaning of the jargon, therefore I do not think there are confusing meaning in it. For example, accountants explained an item with a useful life greater than one reporting period, and which exceeds an entity's minimum capitalization limit as fixed asset (AccountingTools.com, 2016). Fixed asset replaces the long definition and frequently used in financial reports. Within an organization, unique jargon can enhance the transmission of information.

        In conclusion, everyone should use jargon and abbreviations carefully. It is required to consider whether the situation is suitable to make use of those phrases. We cannot see the advantages of using them unless they are properly used.

Reflection

I frequently use the jargon and pretentious words in my writing works. The reason of using jargon is I think I was an expertise of a specific industry and it will be more professionals. But the effect of writing with jargon is the readers do not interpret with those unique words correctly. Meanwhile, I use pretentious words as I want to express my ideas with various difficult expressions. However, they obscured my meaning instead of communicate it clearly. In this assignment and EAS II lessons, I learnt to use simple words to explain but not complicate my ideas by the ineffective words.

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