Does Your Language Work For You?

Think about how you communicate at work or in professional English — this canvas surfaces what your language is really doing.

Name the Fog

Write one sentence you have actually said or heard at work that now sounds like jargon. If you cannot think of one, invent the most plausible-sounding corporate nonsense you can.

What Was at Stake?

If that sentence failed to communicate — if the listener nodded but understood nothing — what real decision or action was left unmade?

Sort the Forces

Place the reasons people use jargon into two zones. Be honest: which zone drives your own language more?

To sound credible

To avoid saying something difficult

How Urgent Is the Problem?

Mark where your professional communication sits right now — not at its worst, but on an ordinary Tuesday.

Crystal clear

Total word soup

The Obvious Fix

Write the advice any coach would give you in one sentence: the obvious, universal answer to speaking more clearly.

Attack the Obvious

Now look back at step 3. What does that obvious advice cost you — politically, professionally, or socially — in your real context? Name the one thing plain English would make harder.

The Hidden Trade-Off

Choose one word that names what jargon is actually protecting in your professional life — not clarity vs. obscurity, but the deeper trade-off underneath. Then write one sentence explaining why you chose that word.

Why that word?

Discuss Tell your partner: if your organisation banned all jargon for one week, what would become visible that is currently hidden?

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