Economíagral

Dialog on Jargon

—1—

Dialog on Jargon

Alf:

Say, Prof, can we bother you for a few minutes to talk about thermo?

Prof:

Sure. I can always make time to talk about thermo.
problem?

Bette:

I'm not sure we have a specific problem—it's more a general uneasiness
about what we've done so far in class. We seem to be spending a lot of
time defining terms without really gettinganywhere.

Alf:

Yeah—we've seen most of those terms before in other courses. We
want to get to something useful.

Prof:

Useful, eh? Well, I certainly don't intend to waste your time. So, you
feel you already know the jargon we've introduced?

Alf:

Like I said, we've had this stuff before.

Prof:

Good. So tell me, Alf, what is a closed system?

Alf:

Oh, that's when nothingcan cross the boundary.

Prof:

Do you agree Bette?

Bette:

I think so—that sounds about right.

Prof:

Ah. But you see, in engineering, the difference between "right" and
"about right" can be the difference between success and failure.

Alf:

I don't get it.

Prof:

Can you use a 5/8-inch box-end wrench to tighten a 3/4-inch bolt?

Alf:

No.
Copyright © 2001 by J. M.Haile

What's the

Dialog on Jargon

—2—

Prof:

But the 5/8 wrench is "about right". In this case, the difference between
"right" and "about right" is only an eighth of an inch.

Alf:

You can't do it; the wrench is too small. But so what? If I pick up the
wrong wrench, I see it doesn't fit, so I put it back and pick up the right
wrench.

Prof:

Ah—so in practice, if you makea mistake, you get feedback, and you
make a correction.

Bette:

Hey, I like that—feedback—yeah.

Prof:

Ok, here's your feedback: When nothing can cross the boundary, the
system is isolated. A closed system is something else.

Alf:

Really? So what is a closed system?

Prof:

No, no. To close the feedback loop, y ou have to make the correction,
not me. I'm playing the role ofthe bolt (or the dolt or the nut, if you
like). Does the bolt tell you it's 3/4-inch? Nope, you have to find out
for yourself.

Bette:

But how are we supposed to know?

Prof:

Now Bette, you told me earlier that you'd seen this stuff before.

Bette:

I guess we've sorta forgotten some of the terms.

Prof:

So perhaps it's worth our time to go through the jargon so you canidentify terms that are only "about right" in your mind? Then you can
do something about them—implement a feedback loop.

Alf:

Ok, Prof, but can't we just pick up the jargon as we go along? I mean,
this stuff is boring.

Prof:

We could. But I don't think that would be an efficient approach. You
see, I am, in fact, trying to take advantage of your having seen this stuff
before.

Bette:What do you mean?

Prof:

If all these terms were alien to you then, at this point, you would feel
overwhelmed—too much new information fed to you too quickly. In
that case, the instructor should feed you new information in chunks you
can digest; as you say, so you can pick it up as we go. But that doesn't
seem to be the case here. What I hear you saying is that you're getting
too muchold information too slowly.
Copyright © 2001 by J. M. Haile

Dialog on Jargon

—3—

Alf:

Mind-numbing, Prof.

Prof:

Fair enough. Then, it would seem that picking it up as we go would
merely prolong the agony. Worse, my experience is that many students
fail to pick up the jargon as we go along, unless I can impress on them
the importance of assimilating the jargon.

Bette:Impress, Prof?

Prof:

Sure Bette. We've spent about a week on jargon, right? So I expect you
to get the message that understanding jargon will contribute to your
success in the course. After all, we will be encountering other new terms
as we go along, so if you develop the habit of paying attention to
jargon, things will go easier for you later.

Alf:

Front-end loading, eh Prof?...