This year, the annual Top 10 List from the Language Police contained something new and something old. The simplest errors were related to traditional grammar such as hyphens, initials, and pronouns. However, the top five items all contained the sorts of errors that thrive in official documents, such as wordiness and specialized terms.
Heading the list is the current abbreviation GDPR. According to this regulation, companies should explain their privacy policy in plain language. Instead we get complicated multi-page contracts to sign. Even the acronym itself is a problem.
After being presented with the list, the audience at the FCG Forum voted for the Jargon 2018 winner from among three finalists. Once again, the winner was the Finnish government’s document related to ongoing health care reform. In close pursuit was the Data Protection Guide from the Ministry of Education and Culture. These two documents represent the abstract jargon that shatters any connection to practical action.
I would have put an English version of a portion of the data protection guide, but in order to translate it into another language, I’d have to be able to understand it in Finnish.