When it comes to raising environmental awareness among everyday citizens, professional vocabulary like “riparian,” “watershed,” and “impervious surface” is an obstacle. The more you throw words like these at everyday citizens, the less confident and comfortable they will feel about their ability to make a difference.

Trying to use environmental advertisements and outreach materials to teach new vocabulary is generally a bad idea. Adults learn, on average, less than one new word per week. When presented with a vocabulary lesson, many will perceive that as a situation that makes them feel stupid and that they want to avoid.

Step three of the Water Words That Work message method is to swap out your shop talk and replace it with plain English. You’ll give up some nuance and precision — but you’ll also get more agreement, action, and cooperation — and that leads to environmental awareness.

And here are some examples of nature protection and pollution control “shop talk.” The more you use them, the more people you will exclude from the conversation. Click the link for citations on the shortcomings of these terms.

If you are wondering about a term that is not on the list below, put it to the shop talk test — could your mother define the term for a stranger without your help. If yes, you can leave the word in. If not, take it out and replace it with something easier to understand.

Words With Documented Shortcomings

Words With Suspected Shortcomings