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Colleague Voices: Jargon
Gain access to a discourse community by understanding and using that discourse community's jargon. Listen in on this segment of National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation as Neal Conan explores "Shop Talk: Workplace Jargon" that examines workplace language.
During the segment, Conan talks with Dr. Geoff Nunberg is a senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University and author of The Way We Talk Now. Conan and Nunberg bring these people into the conversation.
• Sue Pekarsky Gary heads "GarmentoSpeak" in Sebastopol, California (garment consulting business). She is the author of Cover Yourself: Adventures in the Ragtrade from Start-ups to Stars.
• Jesse Sheidlower is the head of the American office of the Oxford English Dictionary.
• Ken Ringle is a staff writer for The Washington Post.
This segment would be interesting for students to listen to as a way to stimulate a discussion about jargon in a variety of professions. To access this NPR segment, "Shop Talk: Workplace Jargon," go here.
SOURCE: Rebecca E. Burnett. Website to accompany Technical Communication/6th edition. Boston: Thomson International Publishing/Wadsworth, 2005. Available:here.
