It’s the first week of June and once again the time to choose the year’s worst jargon. But─why select the jargon of the year? Isn’t it just unpleasant to highlight a random bad document? The purpose of the contest is to focus on how we use language in the public sector; we use a particular example to draw attention to the genre. As Lari Kotilainen, “the protector of the Finnish language,” has recommended, we want to raise a ruckus about hard-to-read text─but with a twinkle in our eye. Public sector documents cannot be seen as a product of a single writer. They are almost always written collaboratively, subject to official guidelines set by higher-ups. Ulla Tiililähas insightfully commented about the bureaucrat’s dilemma: on the one hand they are trained to write clear documents to comply with the Administrative Law, and on the other hand they often must use a poor document template they’re not allowed to alter. The individual who produces the final version within an organization typically lacks authority to make substantial changes, which means officials on every level need to apply principles of understandable communication. If you have a good example of jargon run amuck, please send it by June 3 to info@yksityinenkielitoimisto.net.