Talk Topic : Learning the language.

Saying so much in so little time: Engineering jargon.

Do you think stress and strain can be used interchangeably and are the same? Yes, me too. Even the thesaurus agrees by putting strain as a synonym for stress.It was only after one physics class that l realised otherwise.  Stress is the internal force per unit area that one section of a body exerts on another. Strain, on the other hand, is a measure of a body’s deformation—stretching, shrinking, and changes in shape are all examples of strain. In the engineering field, the two are not the same- let's call them cousins.

When you do not understand field-specific jargon. It happens to everyone.

Just like “I got a hit” is no cause for celebration in the medical field, rather it means, “l admitted a patient”, engineering has its own specific jargon. Ballpark means to estimate. Jargon allows professionals to communicate precisely and accurately. If they used simple English, then they would probably spend half their lives explaining simple concepts. According to Spolsky, “Specialized jargon serves not just to label new and needed concepts, but to establish bonds between members of the in-group and enforce boundaries for outsiders. If you cannot understand my jargon, you don't belong to my group.”  I can never agree more. 

To aspiring engineers, have fun learning the new language you will be using eight hours a day for the rest of your life.It is worth it! To people outside the engineering field, please pardon engineers for using certain words, they  will be trying to say so much in so little time. Till next time.

Panashe, M-

Works Cited
Spolsky, Bernard. "Specialized Varieties of Registers and Domains" Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford      UP, 1998. 33. Google Books. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.