Jargon, abbreviations, acronyms and know-all foreign phrases
All of us who work in organisations, professions, specific industries or bureaucracies are surrounded by jargon. We may regard it as shorthand to speed communication because we share the understanding of what it means, but, whether intentional or not, it is a protective shield that excludes those not in the know. That is the effect it has when used in newspaper writing. Those in the know understand; the rest do not. Anything readers do not understand makes them feel left out rather than included and turns them against the story. They may well stop reading. Medical, scientific and economic terms are a case in point. Avoid them or explain them. Price/earnings ratios and capitalisation mean nothing to the general reader. It is the same with abbreviations and acronyms. Today's students have no idea what CBI stands for; they are more likely to know FoI. A few could expand Nato, fewer the TUC. Many of the terms, although still in use, are generational. They need to be spelt out or explained, or another reader is lost. Just as long words speak down to those with a smaller vocabulary - and there is always a simpler, and less space consuming, alternative - so well-used Latin expressions mean nothing to those who have not learned that language, apart from lawyers who have had to mug up. Pro bono, inter alia and in extremis have no place in newspapers, and usually mean the writer is showing off.

THE GUARDIAN. Why you should link not copy. It ****es people off. (note the British spelling of organizations, above)