How to Write in Plain English
plainenglish.co.uk
How to Write in Plain English
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Re: How to Write in Plain English
#2Writing clearly is like playing Tetris. Sentences should be presented with clauses that drop down and slot together efficiently. At the earliest available opportunity you drop in a block that completes the line and points are won/made.
This can also make for rather dull writing and I appreciate the irony in this paragraph:
> However, at first you may still find yourself writing the odd long sentence, especially when trying to explain a complicated point. But most long sentences can be broken up in some way.
Here we see the Tetris player drop a sequence of blocks leaving a 3x1 gap down the left edge. Where are they going with this? More blocks stack up on the middle and right, there are “bubbles” in the pile that are covered by squares and there’s still that annoying gap on the left holding them back from clearing. Time passes. The screen is now getting dangerously full.
Then they drop in a pair of 4x1 blocks that completes rows 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. The bubbles on rows 4 and 7 become exposed making a T shaped hole. The next block to fall is a T shape. The screen clears, the sentence’s cognitive buffer is flushed, and we move on to the next point.
Re: How to Write in Plain English
#3This article explains how, but it doesn’t explain why: you should do this because it’s an accessibility issue. NHS Digital came up with a good example of this problem: https://digital.nhs.uk/blog/transformation-blog/2019/pee-and...
Re: How to Write in Plain English
#4The campaign founder's biography[1] sounds interesting:
Born in 1938, Chrissie largely missed out on formal education
and could not read until she was in her mid‑teens.
In 1994 Chrissie received an OBE and in 1995 she was awarded an
honorary MA by Manchester University. Two years later, she received
an honorary doctorate from the Open University. And in 1999 she
officially joined the 'establishment' when she was listed in Who's Who.
Re: How to Write in Plain English
#5Plain English has been a 'super power' for my report writing ever since it was drummed into me by a former CEO and MD at a finance and economic consultancy I worked at after University.
"Style toward Clarity and Grace" by Joseph M. Williams is, imho, the most thorough, yet comprehensible, guide to how to write in Plain English. It goes beyond short 'do this, don't do that' guides by explaining why, and how, English can be unclear with exercises to help transform your writing.
I can't stress enough that the ability to take both simple ideas, and complex ideas, and write both in a clear and compelling way that inspires action, will pay dividends over any career.
Re: How to Write in Plain English
#6Structure is the biggest factor of readability. We’ve seen many English style guides, but they are mostly on a sentence and vocabulary level.
A run-on sentence can still be read, just more slowly. An unfamiliar word can be tackled with a dictionary.
But if the text isn’t well-organized on the larger scale, there is no hope.
Re: How to Write in Plain English
#7Writing clearly is like playing Tetris. Sentences should be presented with clauses that drop down and slot together efficiently. At the earliest available opportunity you drop in a block that completes the line and points are won/made. This can also make for rather dull writing and I appreciate the irony in this paragraph: > However, at first you may still find yourself writing the odd long sentence, especially when…
I enjoyed reading the second half in a nature documentary narrator's voice. Or a tennis announcer maybe.
Re: How to Write in Plain English
#8Writing clearly is like playing Tetris. Sentences should be presented with clauses that drop down and slot together efficiently. At the earliest available opportunity you drop in a block that completes the line and points are won/made. This can also make for rather dull writing and I appreciate the irony in this paragraph: > However, at first you may still find yourself writing the odd long sentence, especially when…
This is such a beautiful explanation. Comments like this make me come back to HN again and again.
Re: How to Write in Plain English
#9Don't follow the 'active verbs' rule too much. There's a limit to it, especially when writing technical documents. If it sounds unnatural, or when you have an implied subject that's an important part of the thing you're trying to convey, just use passive voice.
Re: How to Write in Plain English
#10Writing clearly is like playing Tetris. Sentences should be presented with clauses that drop down and slot together efficiently. At the earliest available opportunity you drop in a block that completes the line and points are won/made. This can also make for rather dull writing and I appreciate the irony in this paragraph: > However, at first you may still find yourself writing the odd long sentence, especially when…
> the sentence’s cognitive buffer is flushed
Somehow, this single expression made me finally (after reading beginning of it) understand your post better. Before that expression had hit my apprehension, the post read like "what is he on about?".
Perhaps needless to point out, but this is quite a beautiful thing you've done there: the expression itself works as the very thing it describes, in the context of your post. Within the post, that expression is the T-shaped block, - the thing that clears the buffer and makes all the collected blocks all make sense together.