The annual contest is over, the Language Police have identified the top ten offenders, and 2013\u2019s Jargon of the Year has been chosen. The finalists were the following: a 20-page press release, a departmental reply to a proposed city council measure, and an extract of minutes from a governmental meeting. The merits of the governmental press release, according to Eija Kallioniemi<\/i> who submitted it, were its length and the “upper-management droning” of its language. The maintenance department\u2019s response to an initiative to allow local groups to use idle city facilities was an outstanding example of official jargon, with rolls of ponderous language shrouding the basic idea: \u201cNo, let\u2019s not; it\u2019ll be expensive.\u201d And here\u2019s an snippet from those meeting minutes: “The Museum and Science Center perceives its function firmly within the overall framework called for as part of collaboration with producers of art throughout the preliminary stages of building design as part of each project undertaken in collaboration with the Real Estate Department so as to determine the role played by art in the aforementioned projects.” This year, the jargon forum participants chose finalist number two. One factor in the choice was the use of classic jargon: instead of talking about \u201csuitable premises,\u201d it describes “the features and locations relative to the suitability to purpose of the premises in question.\u201d Similarly, \u201clow budget\u201d is transmogrified to “the city\u2019s meager appropriations pertaining to building repairs compared to the existing requirements for of the renovation.” Thanks to the voters, as well as to everyone who submitted candidates. As always, we hope for better (and clearer) official writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The annual contest is over, the Language Police have identified the top ten offenders, and 2013\u2019s Jargon of the Year has been chosen. The finalists were the following: a 20-page press release, a departmental reply to a proposed city council measure, and an extract of minutes from a governmental meeting. The merits of the governmental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-english-en","7":"category-wordoftheweek-en","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1668,"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions\/1668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yksityinenkielitoimisto.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}