jargon. The technical terminology or specialized vocabulary of a particular activity, class, work or occupational group. Also, obscure and often pretentious language marked by long, unfamiliar words and phrases. Avoid or rewrite. Example: The biota exhibited a 100 percent mortality response. Rewrite: All the fish died. When jargon is necessary, explain or define the terms likely to be unfamiliar to most readers. See bureaucratese and the county's Plain-language writing guide.

jeopardy. Commonly misspelled.

join together, link together. Both are redundant. Remove together.

JPEG, JPG. Abbreviations for joint photographic experts group, an image format for Web graphics. Use the abbreviation in all uses. Lowercase jpg in file names: countyexec.jpg.

judge. Capitalize before a name when it is the formal title for a person who presides in a court of law. Lowercase judge as an occupational designation: contest judge Joe King.

judgment. Not judgement.

junior, senior. Abbreviate Jr. and Sr. only with full names. Do not use separate the abbreviations from the name with a comma: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Similarly, do not use a comma to separate Roman numerals from a person's name: Larry Moe IV, M.D., is losing his patience. Larry Moe V is in the nursery. Pope John Paul George Ringo IV. .

jury. It takes singular verbs and pronouns: The judge sequestered the jury until it reaches a verdict. See collective nouns.

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