Define the Terms You're Quietly Assuming

A technical-writing pattern where you have Claude identify the terms, acronyms, and concepts a piece assumes the reader knows, and define them at first use — pitched to the actual audience rather than to the author.

The curse of knowledge makes writers invisible to their own jargon: a term feels basic to the person who wrote it and is a wall to a newer reader. Each undefined term is a point where someone quietly gives up. Claude, told the real audience, is good at spotting which terms need a gloss and at writing a definition in place that keeps the flow, widening who can follow without dumbing the content down.

Anything read by a mixed or less-expert audience than the author — onboarding docs, public writing, cross-team explainers, anything where you can't assume the reader shares your background.

Writing for genuine peers who share the vocabulary, where defining known terms is patronising and slows them down. Match the glossing to the real audience, not a hypothetical beginner.

My audience is <who, and what they do/don't already know>. Go through this draft and flag every term, acronym, or concept that assumes knowledge this audience may not have. For each, suggest a brief in-line definition at first use that keeps the flow — don't turn it into a glossary dump. Leave terms this audience genuinely knows alone.

Writing for new hires, Claude flags 'idempotent', 'the p99', and an internal acronym, and proposes a half-sentence gloss for each at first mention. The doc now reads smoothly for someone in their first week, without the veterans feeling talked down to.

For a term used many times, have Claude define it once, clearly, and then link back to that definition on later uses rather than re-explaining. Define-once-then-reference keeps a long document readable for both newcomers and returning readers.

• Defining everything, including terms the audience clearly knows, which insults and slows expert readers.
• Dumping definitions in a glossary the reader has to leave the text to find, breaking the flow.
• Writing definitions in more jargon than the term itself — the gloss has to be simpler than what it explains.