Business and Educational Jargon

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Katie. I’m calling from Dallas, Texas.

Hello, Katie. Welcome to the show.

Hi, Katie. What’s up?

Thank you. Well, I’m a school teacher. I work for Dallas Independent School District. And I first heard this phrase at a professional development workshop, and it is share out. Instead of share, you would say share out. So if you were getting your kids to work in groups and they were talking, and then when you wanted them to share with the rest of the class, you would say, share out. And it struck me because I didn’t understand why she didn’t just say, share. So I was just, you know, thought maybe this is a Dallas thing, this is our urban thing, because I grew up in a small town just outside of Dallas. But then this summer, I attended a national conference, and there were teachers from all over the nation, and they said the same thing. They said, share out. And they also said, explain out. So I was just thinking, this is weird. I’ve never heard this before. Why are they adding out to the end of it? Is this just a teacher thing? I just thought it was really unique.

Did you get the sense that that was any different than just sharing?

It was like more encouraging, I think. Like you shout it out, that’s different than just a shout. It’s like, share out, be proud, don’t be timid.

I like that. I think that is a really good analysis of what might be happening here. We can’t know for sure. We’d need a lot more evidence. But I think the idea that the out adds in this idea of being expressive and forceful and not holding back. I love that because we do have many compounds in English that behave that way. To shout it out or to cry out loud.

Well, to me, it connotes a sense of everybody broke up into small groups and they all work together on a project. And then they come back together and share out with the group. To everybody in the room instead of just their own little pot of people.

Yeah, that’s my sense of it, and I’ve heard it in corporate situations that way, where teams will work on something, and then they’ll come share out to everybody else. Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah, and that’s kind of like where education is going towards. It’s supposed to be more collaborative. You’re supposed to really think aloud your ideas as opposed to the teacher just lecturing. It’s more of like this community feel. But I have not heard it any other place than besides the teaching profession. So that’s neat that you have heard it somewhere else.

Well, yeah, I have. But I’m really curious about explain out. That seems strange. That seems more uncomfortable to me, awkward to the ear and the mouth, both.

Yeah, I think she just was maybe getting really comfortable with share out. I need to apply that because, you know, maybe next is going to be think out.

That’s right. I don’t know. I don’t know. Just stick it out.

I have to say, though, I think what we’ve got here, if I can go to the meta-narrative level on this, I think what we’ve got here is a really good example of nascent jargon being formed within a small group of professionals who are all on the same mission. And it remains to be seen whether or not this will leave that group of education professionals and enter into the full world. I know Martha’s heard it in corporate environments, but will regular everyday people be saying this in the house? I wonder. I mean, you share out profits, too. A company shares out profits. It’s a bit of jargon, and I would caution everyone whose first impulse is to say, oh, it’s repugnant, why not just say explain and share, just to hold off a bit, a couple years, maybe 10 years, and just see what happens to explain out and share out and see if maybe they get their own life and their own meaning, as we’re trying to explain here, that are different than explain and share. That’s what will probably happen.

Okay.

Yeah.

I will maybe use it this upcoming fall. I’ve got to say two things to you, Katie. Keep your ears open.

Yeah, one, congratulations on keeping your ears open. You’re a great linguistic field worker, I would say. And second, good luck with teaching. You’re doing the hard work, and we appreciate it.

Thank you so much. I appreciate your help.

All right, take care now.

Bye, Katie.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, we’d love to hear your experiences with these words or other bits of corporate jargon. Call us 877-929-9673 or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.