Editing Jargon (section)

==Specifics==
Jargon, also referred to as "technical language", is "the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group".<ref name=m-w>{{cite web |title=Jargon |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jargon |work=Merriam Webster |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |access-date=29 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405125946/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jargon |archive-date=5 April 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Most jargon is ''technical terminology'' (''technical terms''), involving ''terms of art''<ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Term of art}}</ref> or ''industry terms'', with particular meaning within a specific industry. The primary driving forces in the creation of technical jargon are precision, efficiency of communication, and professionalism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yasuoka |first=Mika |date=2015-08-01 |title=Collaboration Across Professional Boundaries – The Emergence of Interpretation Drift and the Collective Creation of Project Jargon |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-015-9229-2 |journal=Computer Supported Cooperative Work |language=en |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=253–276 |doi=10.1007/s10606-015-9229-2 |s2cid=254416615 |issn=1573-7551|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Terms and phrases that are considered jargon have meaningful definitions, and through frequency of use, can become [[wiktionary:catchword|catchwords]].<ref name=":02">{{cite book |last1=Wodak |first1=Ruth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-pFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR1 |title=Language, Power and Ideology: Studies in political discourse |date=1989 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |isbn=9789027286055 |pages=1–288 |language=en}}</ref>

While jargon allows greater efficiency in communication among those familiar with it, jargon also raises the threshold of comprehensibility for outsiders.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stucky |first1=Mark |title=Dr. Jargonlove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technobabble |journal=Intercom |date=2007 |issue=April |pages=44 |url=https://www.cinemaspirit.info/resume/MS_Intercom_Jargonlove_07.pdf }}</ref> This is usually accepted {{citation needed|date=April 2025}} as an unavoidable [[trade-off]] but it may also be used as a means of [[social exclusion]] (reinforcing [[Ingroups and outgroups|ingroup–outgroup]] barriers) or social aspiration (when introduced as a way of demonstrating expertise). Some academics promote the use of jargon-free language, or plain language,<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Wen |first1=Ju |last2=Yi |first2=Lan |date=October 2023 |title=Tips for writing plain language summaries of medical journal publications |journal=Learned Publishing |language=en |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=720–725 |doi=10.1002/leap.1563 |doi-access=free |s2cid=260235923 |issn=0953-1513}}</ref> as an audience may be alienated or confused by the technical terminology, and thus lose track of a speaker or writer's broader and more important arguments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ross |first1=Steven |title=Jargon and the Crisis of Readability: Methodology, Language, and the Future of Film History |journal=Cinema Journal |date=2014 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=130–133 |jstor=3661180 |doi=10.1353/cj.2004.0052 |s2cid=191592637 }}</ref>

Some words with both a technical and a non-technical meaning are referred to as semi-technical vocabulary: for example, Chinh Ngan Nguyen Le and Julia Miller refer to ''colon'' as an [[anatomical terminology|anatomical term]] and also a [[punctuation mark]];<ref>Chinh Ngan Nguyen Le and Julia Miller, [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889490623000066 A core meaning-based analysis of English semi-technical vocabulary in the medical field], ''English for Specific Purposes'', volume 70, published April 2023, {{doi|10.1016/j.esp.2023.01.006}}, accessed 27 November 2023</ref> and Derek Matravers refers to ''person'' and its plural form ''persons'' as technical language used in [[philosophy]], where their meaning is more specific than "person" and "people" in their everyday use.<ref>Matravers, D., [https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/philosophy/philosophy-the-nature-persons/content-section-1 Introducing the concept of the 'person' and 'persons'], ''[[OpenLearn]]'', section 1 of "Philosophy: the nature of persons", accessed 27 November 2023</ref>