Jargon and Slang in Professional Writing by Jamie Zarr

Jargon- the language, vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group. Unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing; gibberish. Any talk or writing one does not understand.

Slang- very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language. Speech and writing characterized by the use of vulgar and socially taboo vocabulary and idiomatic expressions.

Cultures have developed slang and jargon deliberately to exclude people outside their group. These slangs or jargons gain currency within an in-group who make up words and expressions to communicate with one another about things they often talk about. Because of this there can really be no understanding of the true meaning of the word outside the group.

There are many types of slang, for instance phrases can be an example, or words can be used as slang. Types of slang include swearing, local or dialet expressions, and words with a specialized meaning for a group of people, which should never be used in professional writing. Because professional writing is meant to communicate with large audiences, slang adds nothing more than confusion to the paper. Also, jargon is close to the same meaning as slang. It involves totally new words and phrases, or it could also involve familiar words with new meanings. It may also involve long established foreign terms used to communicate within a certain group for outsiders not to understand.

Quotes about Jargon

• "Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon: instead of principles, slogans: and, instead of genuine ideas, bright ideas." - Eric Bentley

• "Jargon is the verbal sleight of hand that makes the old hat seem newly fashionable; it gives an air of novelty and specious profundity to ideas that, if stated directly, would seem superficial, stale, frivolous, or false." - David Lehman

• "Generally, when people use jargon not to communicate but to impress their audiences with their importance . . . or use it to announce membership in a group, communication suffers and the jargon can quickly degenerate into something close to the twittering of birds." - W. Lutz, "Jargon," Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992

Examples of Slang or Jargon

• "What's up dawg?"
• "Hit the road."
• "What's cooking?"
• "What's up G?"
• "That party was off the chain yo'."
• "Let's get crunk tonight."
• "What are your plans for tonight? Nothing, just chillaxin."

References

http://www.dictionary.com/

www.hodu.com/jargon.shtml