Avoid jargon and abbreviations

- When you commit to writing in plain language you commit to ridding your documents of all kinds of word clutter that accumulates and clogs up your sentences. Clearing out this clutter is like cleaning out your closet, it's easier to do if you don't let it get full of junk in the first place. One kind of clutter you must clear out is technical jargon, which is the language specific to a group or profession. For example, if you're a mortgage lender this sentence is crystal clear, you understand the jargon terms amortization and balloon payment, because you're in the banking profession. But if you're writing for perspective borrowers these jargon terms can cause confusion. Maybe they're learning about mortgages for the first time or they've borrowed before, but it's been a while. To write in plain language you should use non-technical substitutes for the jargon terms or explain the terms in the sentence like this, your loan repayment schedule includes a balloon payment, which is a larger, one-time payment you'll make at the end of the loan. Now the sentence is both accurate and understandable to all its intended readers, even if they aren't bankers. There's another type of jargon you can plan to rinse out of your writing right away, business jargon. Those words and phrases that were fresh the first time they were used, but are tired and trite now. You know, drink from the fire hose, think outside the box, move the needle. In addition to being corny, these business jargon phrases aren't clear. If your boss emailed you this sentence would you understand what they want you to do? Are you supposed to recruit more people? Recruit better people? Or get more candidates to accept job offers? Who knows which needle your boss wants you to move. The second type of clutter is abbreviations. Abbreviations are shorted forms of words or phrases. There's certainly nothing wrong with using abbreviations, but too many of them or too many paragraphs between the explanation and the abbreviation make them confusing. The classic way to handle abbreviations is to write out the term the first time you use it and follow it with the abbreviation in parentheses. And this method works pretty well, but plain language writers handle abbreviations in a more reader friendly way. For example, let's say you're writing about the SBOTG, which stands for Small Business Owner's Tax Guide. You could write this sentence and then use SBOTG everywhere else in the document, but there's an alternative that's even better for your readers. Use some of the important words from the full name instead of just using the first letter of each word. With this method the first time you'd write Small Business Owner's Tax Guide and Tax Guide in parentheses. Then just write Tax Guide every time after. Or you could use SBO Tax Guide. These methods take the pressure off the reader to remember what an abbreviation stood for when it was explained three pages or six clicks before. Here are a few more examples of how to use words or letters plus words instead of a letters only abbreviation. The Administrative Procedure Oversight Committee becomes the Committee, or the Oversight Committee. The Production Part Approval Process becomes the Approval Process. Even if your closets aren't tidy, your writing can be. Don't clutter your writing with jargon or abbreviations. Always remember, your reader is a regular, humble, nice person who's life you can make a bit easier when you write in plain language.