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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Jargon and Editing

This is Steven Petrick posting:

In any given organization a language separate from the normal vernacular in common usage will develop. Those within the organization will quickly come to use this jargon as part of their normal speech. The result, within the organization, is an acceleration in the transmission of information.

Outside of the organization it creates confusion.

For example: "As part of the ARTEP, the OPOrd for the QRF mission to secure the AHA is to be ready NLT 1230Z".

Most soldiers would recognize the above sentence in writing, although in words the NLT would still be expressed as "not later than." and the "Z" after 1230 would be pronounced "Zulu." A soldier reading a book about a military unit (whether a real life story, or the above is simply the background of the murder mystery) would have no trouble understanding the sentence. A political scientist, on the other hand, might not even realize that "Z" is a time zone. Written in colloquial American, the above sentence would read:

"As part of the Army Training and Evaluation Program, the Operations Order for the Quick Reaction Force mission to secure the Ammunition Holding Area is to be ready no later than 12:30 P.M. in the Zulu time zone".

This tendency to have a shorthand means of communicating also applies to gamers. In the 1970s and 1980s almost any gamer would recognize "ZOC" as "Zone of Control" (generally the six hexes surrounding a unit counter on a map), but anyone outside of the gaming community would have no concept for "ZOC" could possibly mean.

But gaming is not a centralized "organization" with a larger organization imposing correct jargon. It is a lot of little groups of enthusiasts who all, in their own groups, develop their own shorthands for expressing things. This is often subconscious, and becomes so natural that any group is often at a loss to understand why any other group playing the same game does not instantly understand their own shorthand.

Now, imagine you are an editor of a game magazine.

There are groups all over the country (and indeed, all over the planet). Even though most use English (if not necessarily American English) as their Lingua Franca, each group develops its own short hand in their isolation from common contact with each other. Thus you get articles written in the common tongue, but with word usages or numbers that are, to you, unfathomable. The player writing the article knows what he means when he lists  his plotted speed changes by a series of numbers, but it does not communicate to you the actual impulses the speed changes are occurring (unless he lists four such changes, in which case each must normally take place on one specific impulse). And to someone reading the article and trying to follow the action on his own map to see how the ships were maneuvering, knowing when those speed changes occurred tells him how much power the ship had. There is a difference between a speed change on Impulse #4 (announced on Impulse #3) to Speed 30 from Speed 15, and the same acceleration committed on Impulse #16 in both power spent and hexes moved and turn mode available. Different groups use different shorthand expressions, and thus the editor winds up going back to the authors and asking for these plots to be explained.

Players in different groups all know what they mean, but when you write, you have to write for the larger audience who may not use exactly the same short hand expressions, i.e., jargon, that your local group uses.

And, yes, you have to accept that even though the on-line universe may use pretty much the same jargon as they are a group, not every player is online, and you have to make sure the reader will know what you mean.

Write for everyone, avoid jargon, and use the clearest meaning you can. Even when writing a Term Paper, Tactical Note, Command Note, Call Out Note, Conquest Note, Assault Note, Primer, or other article.