Plain English

According to Plain English Campaign (www.plainenglish.co.uk), plain English is "… something that the intended audience can read, understand and act upon the first time they read it. Plain English takes into account design and layout as well as language."

Plain English gives commercial advantages to many organisations. Plain English Campaign's facts page contains these examples:

Plain English has saved the British Government an estimated £500 million in the last 20 years.
British Aerospace changed a 150-page document for international contracts to only 50 pages. The first time that the new document was used, a £120 million contract was completed in three and a half weeks, instead of the previous average of 6 months.

Plain English Campaign gives good guidelines for clear writing. Some examples follow:

Keep your sentences short.
Choose words appropriate for the reader.
Prefer active verbs.

Plain English is suitable for complex technical information. For example, US SEC disclosure documents are complex, but they can be written in plain English. In A Plain English Handbook (www.sec.gov/pdf/handbook.pdf), the SEC writes, "We'll start by dispelling a common misconception about plain English writing. It does not mean deleting complex information to make the document easier to understand."

Plain English is good, but sometimes, plain English causes problems.

Plain English resources

Plain English Campaign is a commercial organisation that promotes clear English in the UK. It supplies The A to Z of alternative words (www.plainenglish.co.uk/files/alternative.pdf).

Plain Language Commission is a commercial organisation that promotes clear English in the UK. It supplies Plain English Lexicon. A guide to whether your words will be understood (www.clearest.co.uk/files/PlainEnglishLexicon.pdf).

The Improvement and Development Agency is owned by the Local Government Association. It has a plain English section (www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8021380) on its website.

StyleWriter is an editing tool for plain English:

UK supplier: Plain Language Commission (www.clearest.co.uk).
International supplier: Editor Software (http://editorsoftware.com).

Plain Language Action & Information Network (www.plainlanguage.gov) promotes the use of plain language for all US government communications.

Plain Language Association International (PLAIN) (www.plainlanguagenetwork.org) is an international non-profit organisation that promotes plain language.

Clarity (www.clarity-international.net) is an international organisation that promotes clear legal language.