Learning from linguistics: choosing our words wisely
Keywords:
readability, understandability, vocabulary, jargonAbstract
AbstractIt is important not to use language in a way that excludes some people. ‘Readability’ (or ‘understandability’, in the case of spoken language) is a useful concept from the field of plain language. It is applicable to choosing both vocabulary and sentence structure. This paper looks at techniques to help those working in bereavement support to select understandable words and phrases when communicating with clients. Drawn from linguistics (the scientific study of language), these include the natural phenomenon of accommodation and several techniques that can be used as development activities: identifying short words; identifying jargon; using a thesaurus; using a corpus; using Google; and checking with clients. The paper includes an illustration of these techniques.
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