How to Simplify Technical Jargon

On why simple writing is the ultimate skill in a scholarly life. The hardest habit to break for a good PhD student is pompous writing. They've been taught to vary word choices, use metaphors, and clutter up their prose to impress their friends with their genius and their instructors with their intellect. For the first two to three years of training, I spent nudging, pushing, and asking students to simplify their writing, take a knife to their prose, and distill the essentials. Why? 1. Simple writing forces you to understand your ideas. If you can’t explain your theory of social cognition in a few plain sentences, you probably don’t fully understand it yet. Example: Instead of saying, "Our results elucidate the multifaceted interdependencies among affective states," say, "Feeling good makes people trust others more." 2. It builds trust across audiences. Clear writing shows you aren’t hiding behind jargon or dressing up weak ideas. Example: Compare a paper titled "A Heuristic Evaluation of Pedagogical Modalities" with one called "How Students Learn Better in Small Classes." Which one do you trust more? 3. It frees you from pretension. Academia often sounds complicated — but real scholarship rewards humility. Example: You don’t have to say "epistemological frameworks of inquiry" when you could say "ways of knowing." It doesn’t make you sound less serious — just less pompous. 4. It honors your readers' time & intelligence. Your readers are smart, but they’re also tired & busy. Make their lives easier, not harder. Example: Instead of, "Given the aforementioned, one might infer...," say, "So, we found that..." Straightforward respect always wins. 5. It makes your ideas portable & powerful. Ideas that are simply written travel across fields, countries, & generations. Example: Darwin didn’t title his book "An Examination of Ontogenetic Species Differentiation" — he called it "On the Origin of Species." That’s why the world still reads it. 6. It makes revision and improvement possible. Simple writing exposes the real structure of your arguments — & shows where the weak spots are. Example: A messy paragraph, such as "The multiplicity of interconnected variables requires further parsing...", is harder to fix than a clear line, like "Several factors influence the outcome; some matter more than others." 7. It’s the Foundation for a Lifetime of Contribution. Simple writing gives your work staying power, not just attention. Example: Think about classic works that endure — Einstein’s papers, Jane Jacobs’ Death & Life of Great American Cities — they don’t survive because they were complicated; they survive because they were clear. Simple writing is about learning to elevate your ideas while broadening their reach. It's about making your ideas accessible to the smartest & the least of us, which is how scholars don’t just impress their peers — they shape fields, mentor future generations, & leave a real, lasting legacy. #academicwriting

STOP USING BUZZWORDS, START SPEAKING ENGLISH If you can’t explain a concept in plain English or better yet, in a single sentence you probably don’t understand it yet. I’ve sat in too many meetings where everyone nods along at terms no one actually understands. Or, even worse, everyone THINKS they understand, but they all have a completely different definition and then wonder why the conversation is going nowhere. “Cross-screen convergence” "Holistic measurement framework" "Cloud native measurement stacks" Say enough buzzwords in a row ("Leveraging AI-powered DCO to drive scalable creative versioning across omnichannel touchpoints.") and people stop asking questions. But that’s the moment you should lean in. The best strategists aren’t fluent in jargon. They’re fluent in translation. Here’s what’s worked for me and why TVREV is known for our ability to express complex thoughts in plain English without dumbing it down. 1️⃣ Swap buzzwords for metaphors. “buy this thing now" vs "think good thoughts about us” beats “performance vs brand.” 2️⃣ Ask, “How would you explain this to your grandmother?” 3️⃣ When in doubt: simplify, then simplify again. If you want to be taken seriously, stop trying to sound smart. Start trying to be understood. 🤪

“Write what you know” is horrible advice. Instead, you should write what your reader doesn’t know. Ever write a masterpiece, only to find that not even your partner got what you were saying? Most likely, it’s the curse of knowledge, the assumption that the reader already shares your body of information. I see it all the time when I write for highly successful people. They don’t get that not everybody knows how stock options work or what IPO stands for. As their ghostwriter, it’s my job to identify the blind spots that keep them from delivering their message. The best writers write from the other shore, the one on which the reader is squinting out at the horizon. They swim across the sea of ambiguity and carry their reader home with them on their back. Here are some tips how: 👉 Lose the jargon and acronyms. Only other techies or investors will know what you mean by “yak shaving” or “dead cat bounce.” Everyone else will just think you’re pompous—or a perv. 👉 Use references from your reader’s world. Don’t cite Rawls. Quote Rihanna. 👉 Say it the dumbest way first. Then dress it up. 👉 Talk about “who,” not “what,” when you talk about results. ❌ “This method increases productivity.” ✅ “Do this, and your team will save two hours every day.” 🔥 Pro tip: Get a real human to read it out loud—like your teen or your mom. Hint: If they pause or have to reread something, it’s not them. It’s you. Bottom line: write to show, not to show off. >> Got more tips for fighting blind spots? << 👉 Drop a comment. 👉 Follow me, Salwa Emerson Emerson

“You explain things so well—how do you make Tech sound so simple?” I get this question a lot. And here’s the answer: When I write, I don’t dumb things down. I just connect the dots differently. Because at the end of the day…
What’s the point of sounding smart if nobody gets it? When I write about machine learning, I don’t imagine I’m speaking to an expert. 
I imagine I’m talking to: • My curious friend who’s just getting started • My younger self who thought ML sounded intimidating • Or someone who’s smart… but just tired of tech bros making everything harder than it needs to be. Here’s what helps me: 
🔹 I look for analogies in real life 
🔹 I avoid jargon when a simple word will do
🔹 I test it on people who don’t code, if they understand it, I’ve done my job Tech doesn’t have to feel like an elite club.
You can build cool things and explain them like a human. So next time you feel stuck trying to explain something complex… Try this: “How would I say this to a 10-year-old who asks ‘why?’ 10 times?” You’ll be surprised how much clarity that unlocks.