Jargon Translator: Convert Technical Writing to Plain English

What Jargon Hides

Every field has its secret language. Legal contracts say “notwithstanding the foregoing.” Medical papers mention “comorbidities” and “contraindications.” Tech articles assume you know what “latency,” “throughput,” and “edge computing” mean.

Jargon isn’t just big words — it’s words used in specialized ways. “Significant” in statistics doesn’t mean “important.” “Volatile” in chemistry doesn’t mean “temperamental.” “Exposure” in finance doesn’t mean “publicity.” If you don’t catch these specialized meanings, you think you understand when you don’t.

The worst part: jargon compounds. One undefined term leads to another. By the third paragraph, you’re lost — not because the ideas are hard, but because the vocabulary has locked you out. To translate jargon into plain English, you need more than a dictionary. You need context.

The Prompt: Unpack Phrases in Context

The Phrase Unpacker prompt (PR017) doesn’t just define words — it analyzes how they function in your specific passage. You provide the phrase and its surrounding context, and the prompt unpacks four things:

Literal vs. intended meaning: What do the words technically say versus what the author actually means? Technical jargon often uses familiar words in unfamiliar ways. “Market correction” sounds gentle; it means prices dropped significantly.

Origin or common usage: Where does this expression come from? Is it standard terminology in this field, or is the author using it idiosyncratically? Knowing this helps you recognize it elsewhere.

What work the phrase is doing: Why did the author use this phrase here? Is it signaling expertise, hedging a claim, appealing to authority, or simply using the standard term? Understanding function helps you read critically.

How meaning would shift if stated directly: What would the passage say in plain language? This is your translation — the jargon-free version you can actually understand and remember.

Output Format: What You’ll Get

When you use PR017 with a technical phrase, you’ll receive a structured breakdown that looks something like this:

For the phrase “asymmetric information” in an economics passage, you’d get: the literal meaning (one party knows more than another), the field-specific usage (a market condition where buyers and sellers have unequal knowledge), the rhetorical function (establishing why markets fail), and the plain English translation (the seller knows something the buyer doesn’t).

This output gives you three things: comprehension (you understand this passage), retention (you’ll recognize the term later), and transfer (you can use the term correctly yourself).

Quality Checks: Verify Your Understanding

After unpacking jargon, verify your understanding with these checks:

The restatement test: Can you explain the passage in your own words without using the jargon? If you can only repeat the technical terms, you haven’t truly understood — you’ve just memorized.

The example test: Can you give a concrete example of what the jargon refers to? If “liquidity risk” is just an abstract phrase to you, ask for a real-world scenario. Now it’s a bank not having enough cash when depositors want withdrawals.

The recognition test: Would you spot this jargon and know its meaning if you saw it in a different passage? If yes, you’ve learned the term. If no, you’ve only translated this one instance.

For more comprehensive vocabulary work, see the Glossary from Article prompt (C014) which extracts all key terms at once. For full text simplification beyond just jargon, use the 3-Step Simplification Workflow (C009).

Common Jargon Patterns to Watch

Nominalizations: Verbs turned into nouns (“utilize” → “utilization,” “implement” → “implementation”). These make sentences longer and vaguer.

Acronyms and initialisms: Every field has them. AI, ML, ROI, KPI, EBITDA, CAC, LTV. Don’t assume you know — “CAC” means “customer acquisition cost” in business but “circumferential arm circumference” in nutrition research.

Field-specific meanings: Common words with uncommon meanings. “Leverage” (debt), “exposure” (risk), “significant” (statistically meaningful), “conservative” (cautious estimate).

Euphemisms and hedges: “Negative growth” (decline), “suboptimal outcomes” (failure), “restructuring” (layoffs). Authors use these to soften bad news.

Return to the Understand Difficult Text pillar for more comprehension tools, or explore the full prompt ecosystem at the AI for Reading hub.