Comments on: Helen Barratt: Talking the talk http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/08/12/helen-barratt-talking-the-talk/ Just another blogs.bmj.com weblog Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:25:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Dr. Mary E Black http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/08/12/helen-barratt-talking-the-talk/#comment-2814 Dr. Mary E Black Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:04:35 +0000 http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/?p=438#comment-2814 Fifteen years ago, over gin and tonics at a Faculty Conference, this article was born. Black M E, Connelly J. The next big thing - health futures. The Public Health Physician March 1993; 4: 5 6 Jim Connelly and I collected the ripest bits of jargon we had heard and wrote them up into a seamless stream. "Surfing the opportunity wave" was my favorite, also "joined up thinking" had made its first appearance. We postulated a future market in health outcomes. We believe that most of the readers were not aware it was a pastiche and took it seriously. Both had migrated over from the Department of Health. Most of what we wrote has, sadly, come true. The UN (my recent employer) has an even more extensive vocabulary of jargon. An essential exercise to lighten the mood in training programmes is to write down all the acronyms for UN agencies, and pull them out at random for a team quiz. Recognition rates are well below 100%. The UN jargonometer was popular a few years ago - one piece of paper with 20 lines on it and random phrases across. You can make a sentence of UN speak with any combination of phrases. Fifteen years ago, over gin and tonics at a Faculty Conference, this article was born.

Black M E, Connelly J. The next big thing - health futures. The Public Health Physician March 1993; 4: 5 6

Jim Connelly and I collected the ripest bits of jargon we had heard and wrote them up into a seamless stream. “Surfing the opportunity wave” was my favorite, also “joined up thinking” had made its first appearance. We postulated a future market in health outcomes. We believe that most of the readers were not aware it was a pastiche and took it seriously. Both had migrated over from the Department of Health. Most of what we wrote has, sadly, come true.

The UN (my recent employer) has an even more extensive vocabulary of jargon. An essential exercise to lighten the mood in training programmes is to write down all the acronyms for UN agencies, and pull them out at random for a team quiz. Recognition rates are well below 100%. The UN jargonometer was popular a few years ago - one piece of paper with 20 lines on it and random phrases across. You can make a sentence of UN speak with any combination of phrases.

]]> By: Seye Abimbola http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/08/12/helen-barratt-talking-the-talk/#comment-2734 Seye Abimbola Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:36:45 +0000 http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/?p=438#comment-2734 That's a good idea you might want to take up, Justin..."The BMJ Dictionary of Public Health (Jargons)" or something. Could even be done by OUP or one of such publishers. It's going to be necessary for new comers to public health in the future, I'm sure. I hope someone is listening. Seye Abimbola That’s a good idea you might want to take up, Justin…”The BMJ Dictionary of Public Health (Jargons)” or something. Could even be done by OUP or one of such publishers. It’s going to be necessary for new comers to public health in the future, I’m sure. I hope someone is listening.
Seye Abimbola

]]> By: Justin http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/08/12/helen-barratt-talking-the-talk/#comment-2731 Justin Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:53:15 +0000 http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/?p=438#comment-2731 The observation is quite interesting. I ran into serious problems while trying to write a report because I just ran out of vital public health jargons that would have given it the weight it deserves. I even got very confused when I realized that I did know the pricese meaning of some of the terms I had used which increased my fear that my report was not convincing enough and would be discarded by those I was writing it for. Infact, I discarded several drafts I prepared. Is there any dictionary of public health jargons that can help reduce some of these problems? The observation is quite interesting. I ran into serious problems while trying to write a report because I just ran out of vital public health jargons that would have given it the weight it deserves. I even got very confused when I realized that I did know the pricese meaning of some of the terms I had used which increased my fear that my report was not convincing enough and would be discarded by those I was writing it for. Infact, I discarded several drafts I prepared. Is there any dictionary of public health jargons that can help reduce some of these problems?

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