Plain English

"Plain English is clear, straightforward expression, using only as many words as are necessary. It is language that avoids obscurity, inflated vocabulary and convoluted sentence construction. It is not baby talk, nor is it a simplified version of the English language. Writers of plain English let their audience concentrate on the message instead of being distracted by complicated language. They make sure that their audience understands the message easily." - Professor Robert Eagleson

Plain English is Clear English

The main goal in writing is to put your message across clearly and concisely. Readers want an effortless, readable and clear writing style. Plain English is clear English – it is simple and direct but not simplistic.

Write and Edit like a Professional

Newspapers such as the Financial Times or the Washington Post; magazines such as The Economist, Time and Newsweek; and best-selling books use the straightforward, plain English style. Why? Because professional writers and editors know a clear style helps their readers understand and absorb the information presented.

Around 90 percent of the newspaper subeditor’s time spent improving an article for publication is cutting, simplifying and rearranging the words into a clearer style. Here’s a typical subeditor’s redraft of a press release. The subeditor is breaking the poor writing habits of the author, to produce a better and stronger writing style.

What is Style Index?

Plain English Checklist

Plain English editing and a professional subeditor’s skills are similar. Both use commonsense rules to guide them to produce a more concise, clearer style. The 10 most important editing principles are:

1. Think of your reader’s needs.
2. Organize your content well.
3. Write in a natural style as if you were talking to the reader.
4. Keep sentences short.
5. Use active verbs.
6. Be specific rather than general.
7. Cut all redundant words and phrases.
8. Use simpler words rather than complex words.
9. Cut down on jargon.
10. Edit vigorously.

Good Writing Comes from Strong Editing

The secret to becoming a better writer is to use these principles to edit your draft. Here is a typical business memo. Good editing, using these principles cuts its length by more than half and results in a clearer style.

What is Style Index?

Only one out of 50 business and government documents is in plain English. Why? Because untrained writers draft documents full of passive verbs, long sentences, wordy phrases, complex words and other style faults.

The main problem in all writing is not a grammatical slip or an occasional typing error. We all have poor writing habits we pick up from reading hundreds of memos, business letters and reports that come across our desk. For every genuine grammar mistake corrected, good subeditors will make dozens of style changes. Do you recognise the typical business style?

What is Style Index?

What is Style Index?

What is Style Index?

Why do nearly all plain English initiatives fail?

Most organizations recognize customer letters, brochures, e-mails, management reports should be clear and concise but most documents fail any basic, plain English test.

The traditional response has been to put employees on business writing courses and expect one day’s tuition to transform the way they think and write. In tests, people going on traditional business writing courses often showed little improvement in writing style. Statistics on writing style show there is typically only a 10 percent improvement one week after the course and a month later most participants fell back to their pre-course standard.

There are many reasons for this failure. Here are the important ones.

• The culture of business and government encourages poor writing. Most people’s writing style comes from the documents they see around them. So unless you train everyone in effective writing, improving writing standards is difficult.
• Most people think they do write clearly, although at least 80 percent of documents in organizations are badly written and full of poor style faults. It always comes as a shock when people see how much clearer documents can become with strong editing.
• Managers believe the problem is never with their writing style, but with the style of their staff. Managers happily send their staff to writing courses. But after the course, the managers continue to redraft the new, clearer style back into management-speak. The unspoken message to the person trying to write clearly is: “Don’t write clearly, write as I do.”
• Most writers are so close to their jargon and style they cannot see their writing faults. Most writers have no idea why others find their documents difficult to read and understand.
• Many people falsely believe the long-winded, complex style of business and government is the expected and agreed style. Many employees look at existing documents and copy the style. This means people who normally speak clearly and write well, quickly pick up the bad writing habits and stilted style of their colleagues.
• Many people learned to write at university and college where length and an impressive vocabulary seemed to be a virtue. Yet in the workplace, everyone wants short and clear documents to make their lives easier.
• Only one person in 50 attends training in effective writing. Organizing and running courses is time-consuming and expensive. If you use outside consultants to run them, they can cost up to $1,500 for ten people. Plain language software is much more economical.
• There’s no backup to put any effective writing training into practice. Most people only remember one-third of the training ideas and put even fewer into practice. Plain English editing software means writers constantly learn ways to improve their style.

Why does plain English software guarantee success?

To guarantee everyone in an organization writes clearly, you need to change the communication culture, train staff and give them the tools to back up the training. This has proved impossible without software.

In the same way running a spelling checker on your word processor guarantees everyone writes without typing and spelling mistakes, plain English software can guarantee the benefits of clear writing. Organizations can immediately train all staff using our Electronic Writing Course. Each employee can then run StyleWriter through letters, memos and reports until drafting in plain English becomes the standard throughout the organization. Organizations can also work with us to create an Electronic House Style to make sure every document keeps to your house-style rules and conventions.