Wikipedia:Explain jargon
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This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Editors should follow it, except where common sense and the occasional exception will improve an article. Before editing this page, please make sure that your revision reflects consensus. |
Words and phrases used as jargon by any profession or group should usually be avoided or explained.
[edit] Subject-specific terms
Like slang, 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.
[edit] Related guidelines and templates
Per Wikipedia:Self-references to avoid, do not assume that the readers know anything about Wikipedia. Wikipedian jargon should appear rarely in articles, and always be explained.
Some mathematical symbols might be considered unnecessary jargon. Write them out in words, or explain their meaning and pronunciation (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (mathematics)).
{{Cleanup-jargon}} or {{Jargon-statement}} can be used to tag articles with jargon problems.
