About Us

Why Use Plain Language?

Our readers are busy. They want to scan, not read. About 79% of users scan new pages they come across; only 16% read word-by-word. Plain Language saves money, increases efficiency, and reduces the need for clarification.

Morkes, J., and Nielsen, J. (1997). Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to Write for the Web. http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html

10 Steps to Plain Writing

1. Know your audience
   • Think of why your audience needs to read the document.
   • What does my audience already know?
   • Write to everyone who is interested, not just technical experts.
2. Organize your thoughts
   • Even experts prefer clearly written documents.
   • What questions will your audience ask?
   • Make sure your audience can find what they need.
3. Summarize main points
   • Highlight main points with headers and lists.
   • Provide links to more information when necessary.
   • Writing an e-mail? Put conclusions in the first paragraph so readers are sure to notice them.
4. Write short sentences and paragraphs
   • Do not use unnecessary words just because they make you sound authoritative.
   • Each paragraph should have one topic sentence and develop one idea.
   • In documents, the average sentence length should be 20 words; 15 on the Web.
5. Use every day phrases and words
   • People relate better to information that talks directly to them.
   • Meaningless words and phrases waste space and your reader’s time.
   • Eliminate unnecessary words - An absolute success, completely finished, tentatively suggest.
6. Minimize “Census-speak”
   • Acronyms are not unique. Don’t assume your reader knows them all.
   • Don’t use more than two or three abbreviations in each written document.
   • Avoid bureaucratic and legal language — “promoting an informed and inclusive multicultural society.”
7. Use strong subjects and verbs
   • Write the action(s) you want the reader to take.
   • Use active voice to make clear who is responsible. Passive voice confuses the reader.
   • Keep the subject and verb close together to avoid confusion.
8. Define uncommon terms
   • Acronyms and abbreviations distract the attention of your reader.
   • Define uncommon terms and use them consistently.
   • Define acronyms more than once. If necessary, provide a glossary.
9. Use headings, lists, and tables
   • Headings and lists help your audience find the material they want quickly.
   • Use tables and illustrations that visually engage your audience.
   • Make sure that all the items in a list start with the same part of speech.
10. Proofread
    • Review with a pair of fresh eyes—wait two or more days to review or ask a peer to edit.

For more examples, go to: http://go.usa.gov/G2o

Plain language…

• is NOT imprecise.
• is NOT an attempt to dumb-down information.
• does NOT strip out necessary technical and legal information.
• is NOT only editorial “polishing” after you finish writing.
• It’s a whole process.
• is NOT just using pronouns in a “question and answer” format.

Plain Language at Census: http://www.census.gov/aboutus/plain_writing.html

“If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well.” -Albert Einstein