Avoiding jargon in materials meant for journalists
Launch library · evergreen read
Internal language that feels perfectly normal inside an organisation often reads as impenetrable to a journalist encountering it for the first time with no context of their own. Jargon slows a reader down and forces them to do translation work that a clearer piece of writing would have already done for them before it ever reached their inbox.
The discipline of avoiding jargon is really a discipline of respecting the reader's time and attention. A press release or briefing document written in plain language signals that the sender has thought carefully about how the material will actually be read and used, rather than simply exported from an internal document with the technical terms left fully intact.
Testing materials on someone unfamiliar with the subject before sending them out is a simple, low cost way to catch jargon that has become invisible to those closest to the work itself. If that reader stumbles on a term or has to ask what it actually means, a journalist encountering it cold is very likely to stumble too.