Vocabulary Word of the Day: Philanthrobabble

I wanted to quickly highlight this video article in yesterday’s Chronicle of Philanthropy entitled “Are You Addicted to ‘Philanthrobabble?”   It discusses “how the sector became so addicted to jargon and why a return to plain language can create clarity and build trust.”

First, it’s a great word.  Second, it’s a fun little video… less than 2 minutes.

Mostly, however, it got me thinking about the plain language movement in legal writing. This semester, I’m teaching Estate Planning, which is a drafting heavy course.   The issue of plain language drafting versus jargon comes up all the time, especially in documents that are intended to be read by non-specialists.  Similarly, this is a huge topic for discussion in Nonprofits when we talk about drafting and amending bylaws that will be primarily consumed by laypeople.  Distinguishing between words of art (“health, education, maintenance and support” or “no part of the net earnings of which…”) from jargon is not always evident.

The video makes the great point that jargon is a consequence of professionalism – it can lay inclusionary (and exclusionary) boundaries for that profession.  The video goes on to make the larger point that these exclusionary boundaries can erode trust when the profession meets the lay person.   One thing that may be unique to estate planning (maybe but maybe not… I’d love to hear counterpoints) is that jargon sometimes enhances the aura of importance of the documents to be generated.  This may sound like a bad thing, but to the extent that it underlines the importance of the action, maybe it isn’t all bad.  In an era of do-it-yourself wills and AI generated bylaws, having a bit of mystique could be a good thing.  

Sesquipedalianly, eww