How to Write in Plain English

Personally, I'm happy with few tools that helps me write simpler (and hopefully better) English in my everyday usage.

## Long-Form

When I'm writing a long-form prose/essay, I start writing in Hemingway[1]. Edits and changes are done there to cater to my target audience. I'd then pick up the draft from there and go through Grammarly[2] as the final passage.

## Quick, Short Writings

For everyday use, I use iA / Writer[3]. I turn on all the Style Check filters to spot superfluous adjectives, weak verbs, and unwanted repetitions. I then, let it go through Grammarly (either with the App, or via browser Input fields).

This has helped me a lot. Growing up in a region with too many dialects per area, we used English as the one medium to communicate and educate, so I have the affinity to write more phrase-y, English-y. For quite a while, I have wanted to simply and write more clearer, simpler, and effective. These three tools have helped me a lot.

I have used Grammarly for almost a year, it says my vocabulary uses more unique words than 94% of Grammarly users. I'm not particularly proud of that. I want to simplify.

1. http://www.hemingwayapp.com

2. https://grammarly.com

3. https://ia.net/writer

This Orwell essay stuck with me many years ago, well worth a read: https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_poli...

Also Fear and Loathing of the English Passive http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf

Love it. Check out “Writing for GOV.UK”[0] for more guidance.

Among interesting things to note that they strongly discourage FAQs (“if you write content by starting with user needs, you will not need to use FAQs … they are usually not frequently asked questions by the public, but important information dumped by the content editor”). The concept of FAQ has long been a pet peeve of mine, although I do believe the “question and answer” format has some merit.

[0] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/writing-for-gov-u...

Perfectly-timed!