Jargon? Really? Sounds like meaningful dialogue mechanisms are needed...

The UK Local Government Association has created a list of 200 words which it says should not be used by local councils to encourage more effective communication.

I find it a pretty surprising list, really. The article which accompanies it suggests that it is simply full of cliches or unnecessary words which have been developed from already existing (and perfectly adequate) ones- 'potentiality' instead of 'potential', for example. While there are some tired and overworked phrases in there, there's a lot of the list which seems surprisingly, well, normal... especially for use in Government documents... 

I decided to write this short piece about Youniverse:

Youniverse uses Imagini's unique VisualDNA technology to create a range of quizzes (covering areas such as music, movies, creativity and wellbeing), designed to allow you a greater vision of yourself by being able to visualize your personality. The core message of Youniverse is 'be understood', and we aim to engage our users by getting them to express themselves visually, which facilitates meeting like-minded people and making new friends with compatible personalities. We also have some collaborations and partnerships with other sites- you can take quizzes for MyDeco, hotels.com and Pepsi. All of this is designed to enhance your experience on Youniverse. 

So... did you understand that? It does contain 8 banned words (that's about one illegal word per line)... Can you work out which ones? Suggestions and comments welcome, as always! (Oops... used another one there... I'm such a rebel.)

Oh, and if you want to see the full banned jargon list, you can read it here.