The Language of Research: The Blunder of Using Jargons


What does “dating” mean? For a scientist, it means determining the age of an artifact. For most people, it is a stage in a romantic relationship. The reality of research containing jargon and specialized language is not new. As researchers, we need to use words that best describe the process so that we can explain them as precise as possible. Unfortunately, our general audience – the very purpose of our research, does not understand our results due to the wide vocabulary and hard to define words. Some researchers succumb to the sin of jargon because it can signal to the audience, especially those who are writing for an in-group audience, that they are not a member of that group or have not mastered the group's terminology.  But we need to realize that as researchers, in whatever field, we write to communicate. If we cannot maintain clarity and relay our results to our audience, why did we even conduct one in the first place?

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REFERENCES:
Biswas, A. & Kirchherr (11 April 2015). “Prof, no one is reading you”. The Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/prof-no-one-is-reading-you
Butin, D. (2010). The Education Dissertation A Guide for Practitioner Scholars. Corwin: Thousand Oaks, CA
Carter, S. (2012). Structuring Your Research Thesis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Gorard, S. (2013). Research Design: Creating Robust Approaches for the Social Sciences. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA
Lunenburg, F. (2008). Writing a Successful Thesis or Dissertation: Tips and Strategies for Students in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Corwin Press: Thousand Oaks, CA
Pudue. (n.d.). Group Jargon. Purdue Writing Lab. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/608/03/
University of Southern California (25 August 2017). Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Design Flaws to Avoid. Retrieved from http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/designflaws

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