Everyone likes reading something that they can understand unless they are reading the specific work for educational or information purposes. The idea of reading a book with a dictionary close at hand is not an option for many people, myself included. There are many reasons it could profit a writer if they skipped technical words and replaced them with accessible language.

One reason is obviously to achieve flow. Think of jargon as a road bump on a road that could otherwise be smooth and straight. Difficult language inhibits flow, which is one of the most important elements of a great story or article. Unless your audience is familiar with the language, it is always wise to reduce the amount of jargon in your work. Remember, the more the technicalities, the narrower the scope of your audience.

I am not the biggest fan of books on war history but a particular book caught my eye a while back. The book was on the Vietnam War and it was written by a war veteran. On reading the summary, I was immediately interested and I began reading the book almost as fast. From the beginning, I could tell I would not be able to understand the story. The plot was full of military jargon whose meaning was a mystery to me. The slang too was impossible to comprehend. I had to stop reading as I knew it would all be futile, not because the idea behind the book was not great but the way the story was told was just not comprehensible for anyone who never went to war in Vietnam or any other war for that matter. The effect of another book whose impact could have been greater and whose audience could have been even wider became limited just because of one element; language.

How then is it possible to write a great story while navigating language technicalities? There are definitely ways to go around it. The most straightforward one is to offer an explanation for the uncommon language used. Explaining first what a term means helps the reader understand the plot and builds their vocabulary in the specific field. Still, try to avoid jargon as much as possible. You do not want to stop at each point of a great story to explain to the reader the meaning of words. This will interrupt the grip the story has on the reader and also takes away their attention from the story. Once they are done understanding the term, they have to figure out where they were in order to continue with the book.

The right dose of jargon can, however, add flavor to your work but when kept to a minimum. A great way to do this is to include technical words that could be perceived as funny to a reader who comes across the word for the first time, as a way to add humor to your work. This also applies to slang words that could be derogatory but also poke fun possibly in the description of people, how they look or even their behavior. Always keep it conversational.