Phrases, Clauses, and Sentences
Idioms, Clichés, Jargon, and Euphemisms
One definition of jargon is that it is the specialized language of a particular field or profession—psychology, sociology, economics, literature, mathematics, biology, anthropology, and so on. When you are writing a paper in a particular field, you can use the specialized terms that are accepted and understood in that field. In fact, you will probably have to.
Negative connotations of jargon
The term jargon has other, less neutral definitions, and the connotations of the term are almost always negative. Jargon can seem like gibberish, language unintelligible to most people. When a special term arises because it describes or explains or categorizes something in a helpful way, it is acceptable, but when jargon becomes a way of making something sound more scientific or complex than it really is, it should be avoided. Jargon is sometimes merely doubletalk and is also often responsible for wordy, heavy-handed sentences.
Avoiding jargon
In your writing, avoid using specialized terms from a particular field unless you are writing in or about that field. For example, you can talk about computers interfacing more appropriately than about people interfacing. Risk-averse investments is a tolerable phrase; risk-averse children should be changed to children who are afraid to take risks. Don't use a specialized term like paranoia, which in psychiatry is a mental disorder characterized by delusions, to describe people's lack of ease around strangers or a parent's nervousness about a child. Be careful of scientific terms (critical constants, entropy, genotype, etc.). These specialized terms have distinct meanings, and if you borrow them to describe other phenomena, you may be making a mistake. At the very least, you may confuse your reader.
