A writer’s tone and level of formality vary with context. In an email or letter to a friend or close associate, informal language is often expected and appropriate. But when you are addressing people you do not know well, as in most academic and professional writing, more formal language is likely to have a better effect on your audience. Compare these responses to a request for information about a job candidate:

In deciding on the right words to use in a particular piece of writing, a writer needs to be aware of the possibilities and pitfalls of different kinds of language, including slang and colloquial language; technical and occupational language; and pompous language, euphemisms, and doublespeak.

Using slang and colloquial language

Slang, or extremely informal language, is often confined to a relatively small group and usually becomes obsolete rather quickly, though some slang gains wide use (selfie, duh). Colloquial language, such as in a bind or snooze, is slightly less informal, more widely used, and longer lasting than most slang.

Writers who use slang and colloquial language in the wrong context run the risk of not being understood or of not being taken seriously. If you are writing for a general audience about gun-control legislation and you use terms like gat or Mac to refer to weapons, some readers may not know what you mean, and others may be irritated by what they see as a frivolous reference to a serious subject.

Using technical and occupational language

Those who work—or play—in particular fields sometimes create their own technical language. Businesspeople speak about vertical integration and upside movement, biologists about nucleotides and immunodestruction, and baseball fans about fielder’s choices and suicide bunts. If you use any technical or occupation-specific language, make sure that your audience will understand your terms, and replace or define those that they will not. Technical and occupational language can be divided into two overlapping categories: neologisms and jargon.

Neologisms

Defined as new words that have not yet found their way into dictionaries, neologisms are especially useful in rapidly changing fields, such as business and sciences. Terms like nanotechnology (coined in 1974 and popularized in the 1980s) and vortal (from “vertical portal”), for example, could not be easily replaced except by much more complex explanations. Some neologisms, however, do not meet a real need and are unlikely to have staying power. Before including a neologism in your writing, then, consider whether your audience will understand and appreciate it.

Jargon

Jargon is the special vocabulary of a trade or profession, enabling members to speak and write concisely to one another. Reserve jargon for an audience that will understand your terms. The example that follows, from a blog about fonts and typefaces, uses jargon appropriately for an interested and knowledgeable audience.

Depending on the needs of one’s audience, jargon can be irritating and incomprehensible—or extremely helpful. Terms that begin as jargon for specialists (such as asynchronous or vertical integration) can quickly become part of the mainstream if they provide a useful shorthand for an otherwise-lengthy explanation. Before you use technical jargon, remember your readers: if they will not understand the terms, or if you don’t know them well enough to judge, then say what you need to say in everyday language.

Avoiding pompous language, euphemisms, and doublespeak

Stuffy or pompous language is unnecessarily formal for the purpose, audience, or topic. It gives writing an insincere or unintentionally humorous tone, making a writer’s ideas seem insignificant or even unbelievable.

As these examples illustrate, some writers use words in an attempt to sound expert or important, and these puffed-up words can easily backfire.

Euphemisms are words and phrases that make unpleasant ideas seem less harsh. Your position is being eliminated seeks to soften the blow of being fired or laid off. Other euphemisms include pass on for die and plus-sized for fat. Although euphemisms can sometimes show that the writer is considerate of people’s feelings, such language can also sound insincere or evasive—or can unintentionally insult by implying that the term or idea being avoided is something shameful.

Unlike euphemisms, doublespeak, a word coined from the Newspeak and doublethink of George Orwell’s novel 1984, is language used deliberately to hide or distort the truth. During cutbacks in the business world, companies may speak of layoffs as employee repositioning or proactive downsizing, and of unpaid time off as a furlough. Nevertheless, most people—and particularly those who have lost jobs or taken pay cuts—recognize these terms as doublespeak.

Talking the Talk: Texting abbreviations

For Multilingual Writers: Avoiding fancy language