Wikipedia:Explain jargon
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| Manual of Style (MoS) |
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Words and phrases used as jargon by any profession or group should be avoided or explained. Much like slang, jargon develops as a kind of shorthand among members of a group. Encyclopedias should either restate these terms in words that will be understood by as wide a readership as possible, or explain the terms at their first occurrence if the terms themselves are notable and relevant.
Subject-specific terms
Some articles may never become accessible to a wide readership, but most articles using academic or professional terms should contain more explanation at a more basic level than would be available in the typical academic paper or textbook. On the other hand, an article which defines every term, or every symbol, may be so cluttered they are not readable by anybody. It is often helpful to wikilink terms not obvious to most readers; sometimes links to Wiktionary may serve the reader as well as links to Wikipedia articles. Pay particular attention to terms which have a common meaning and are being used for a different one.
Related guidelines and templates
Per Wikipedia:Self-references to avoid, do not assume that the readers know anything about Wikipedia. Wikipedian jargon (such as wiki) should appear rarely in articles, and always be explained.
Mathematical symbols can sometimes be jargon, to be avoided, written out in words, or explained and given pronunciation; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (mathematics).
{{Cleanup-jargon}} can be used to tag articles with jargon problems.