If you are writing for a general audience, consider your use of technical terms. People who do not think of themselves as computer professionals often consider technical terms to be a major stumbling block to understanding. Whenever possible, you should get your point across by using common English words. It is all right to use technical terms when they are necessary for precise communication, even with a general audience, but do not write as if everybody understands these terms or will immediately grasp their meaning. Define terms in the text as you introduce them. Provide a glossary with your content, and provide links from the main text to the glossary if you are writing for online Help or for the web.

If you are writing for a technical audience, use domain-specific terminology only when the terminology is necessary to make your content precise and accurate. Be sure to use technical terms as they are defined at Microsoft and industry wide. To verify the industry-wide meaning, use authoritative resources, not unedited websites. For example, you can use domain books and dictionaries such as the American Heritage Dictionary. You can use authoritative terminology websites such as Webopedia.com, BusinessDictionary.com, and Whatis.com, and industry standard sites such as the W3C site. For recent usage citations of words that may be too new for dictionaries, you can refer to websites such as those for trade and consumer magazines. If you are writing about terminology for another product or service, you can check that group’s project style sheet. Even for a technical audience, define terms in the text as you introduce them. Provide a glossary with your content, and provide links from the main text to the glossary if you are writing for online Help or for the web.

Use the same terms in marketing materials as those that are used in the product, service, tool, or website. Do not create a new term if a term describing a concept already exists. If you must create a new term, verify that the term that you select is not already in use to mean something else. Regardless of audience, avoid giving specific technical meaning to common English words. Even if new terms are well grounded in the everyday definition of a word, those reading your content may not be attuned to the subtleties of meaning that underlie such terms, and they may try to make sense of the material by using the common definition. For more information, see Jargon.