Editing Encyclopedia:Manual of Style (section)

===Technical language<span id="JARGON"></span>===
{{Shortcut|MOS:JARGON}}
{{redirect|Wikipedia:Jargon|an explanation of jargon used on Wikipedia|Wikipedia:Glossary}}
{{See also|Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not a manual, guidebook, textbook, or scientific journal|Wikipedia:Make technical articles understandable}}

Some topics are necessarily technical; however, editors should seek to write articles accessible to the greatest possible number of readers. Minimize the use of [[jargon]], and adequately explain its meaning when it is used. Overly technical material can be tagged with {{tlx|Technical}} or {{tlx|Technical statement}}, so that it can be addressed by other editors. For topics that require a more technical approach, the creation of a separate introductory article (like [[Introduction to general relativity]]) may be a solution.

Excessive ''wikilinking'' (linking within Wikipedia) can result from trying too hard to avoid putting explanations in parenthetical statements, like the one that appeared earlier in this sentence. Do not introduce specialized words solely to teach them to the reader when more widely understood alternatives will do. 

When the concepts underlying the jargon used in an article are too complex to explain concisely in a parenthetical, [[Wikipedia:Make technical articles understandable#Write one level down|write one level down]]. For example, consider adding a brief background section with {{tlx|main}} tags pointing to articles with a fuller treatment of the prerequisite material. This approach is practical only when the prerequisite concepts are central to the exposition of the article's main topic and when such prerequisites are not too numerous. Short articles, such as [[Wikipedia:Stub|stubs]], generally do not have such sections.

{{crossref|pw=y|For italicization and other markup of introduced terms, see: {{section link|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting#Words as words}}.}}