I recently attended Plain English training and thought I would share what I thought were some of the important points of the day.
Using plain English is important so that we do not exclude people by the language we use. We want people to understand us so that they get the information they need, and we are able to communicate the messages we need.
The main principles of plain English are:
• Keeping your message brief and not loading it with unimportant information
• Being clear so that your reader does not have to read what you are saying many times
• Having correct punctuation so that the reader does not get confused
• Being a bit more informal and writing in a style similar to the way people speak (I also understand that there are times when this may be inappropriate)
Passive and active sentences
Passive example:
The stick was chewed by the dog.
Active example:
The dog chewed the stick.
We should try to use active sentences as information is given in a logical order. We don’t speak using passive sentences so why would we write like this? Passive sentences also use more words - you shouldn’t put more words in to a sentence than are needed.
Passive sentences are often used to soften the blow or to avoid taking the blame. Example:
Passive: A mistake has been made.
Active: We have made a mistake.
Not cluttering your sentences
The training also covered cluttered sentences. Too many punctuation marks may make what you are saying harder to read. Examples of this include:
• 5 May 2010 not 5th of May 2010
• 5pm not 17:00 or 5:00p.m.
• Not typing in BLOCK CAPITALS – it’s hard for your eyes to figure the shapes out, especially if used in sentences or passages.
Final thoughts
The main message of the day was that people are always busy and we want to make sure that what we say is heard and acknowledged. To do this we need to keep our messages easy to understand, short and to the point.
SILK have always tried to make sure that everything we write is accessible for everyone to understand. Some people use language to exclude others from understanding what it is they really mean - we feel very passionate that our work should be accessible and understood by everyone, so if you have seen something that we have written that you don't think is clear please get in touch with us and let us know.
Useful tools and links
SMOG Calculator
SMOG stands for Simplified Measure of Gobbledygook. It gives an idea of how difficult your text is. The lower the score the simpler and the higher the score the more difficult it is to understand. Ideally you should aim for a score under 15.
Plain English Campaign Website contains lots of information about how to make your writing easier to understand. They have produced a lot of guides; I particularly like the A-Z of alternative words.
