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.
Subject-specific terms
Like slang, hi jargon develops as a kind of shorthand among members of a group. 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 that it is 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 for which the technical meaning is different than the commonly understood meaning.
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.