Avoiding jargon

Jargon is specialized language used among members of a trade, profession, or group. Use jargon only when readers will be familiar with it; even then, use it only when plain English will not do as well.

Jargon offers efficiency and specificity to people within the group, but it excludes those outside the group.

Heading: Jargon. Example sentence: For years the indigenous body politic of South Africa attempted to negotiate legal enfranchisement without result.

Heading: Revised. Example sentence: For years the indigenous people of South Africa negotiated unsuccessfully for the right to vote.

Broadly defined, jargon includes puffed-up language designed more to impress readers than to inform them.

Sentences filled with jargon are hard to read, and they are often wordy as well.

Choosing alternatives to jargon

Examples of jargon from different fields

Exercise: Jargon, pretentious language, euphemisms, and doublespeak 1

Exercise: Jargon, pretentious language, euphemisms, and doublespeak 2