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Plain English (sometimes known as plain language) is a communication style that focuses on putting across the content in short and clear sentences. It uses less words and tries to avoid jargon or technical terms when possible.

It stays away from long and ambiguous sentences. Supporters for plain English say it lets the audience concentrate on the message instead of complicated language. It increases understanding and makes the message more accessible to a wider audience.

Writing for web pages, legal documents, instruction manuals, and government forms are some examples where plain English is used.

History

^{[original research?]}

Before the 20th century, English-language writers like to use long sentences and a very complicated style. A sentence could take up half a page with many irrelevant information. In some other European languages, such as German, the use of long and irrelevant sentences were even more extensive; for example, the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel was known for writing sentences that easily occupied three pages.

It is not clear where this tradition came from, but it may have originated with classical Latin, in which such prose was perfectly acceptable. Another example of trying to force Latin rules onto the English language: misguided educators in the 19th century, seeing that Latin doesn't have split infinitives, proclaimed that proper English must follow suit. Thus was born the mythical rule against splitting the infinitive form of a verb (for example, "to go") with one or more words ("to boldly go"). Latin uses only one word for the infinitive, making it impossible to split, but English uses two words ("to be"). Other mythical rules include "Don't end a sentence with a preposition," "Don't use contractions in formal writing," and "Don't use the pronoun 'you' in formal writing." As long as a writer's meaning is clear and the tone is appropriate for the audience, there is no reason whatsoever, real or imagined, to follow these "rules" that never were (no matter what your teacher told you in ninth grade).

Important Influences

In the late 19th century, several gifted writers (e.g., Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain) demonstrated that plain English could be elegant when executed properly (e.g., the Gettysburg Address); but they were ahead of their time.

During the 1920s, such style guides as William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style actively promoted the idea of writing in plain English. However, it would take over fifty years for Strunk's ideas to become widely accepted.

George Orwell wrote an important essay on the subject in 1946, entitled "Politics and the English Language".

The plain English revolution finally penetrated the fields of law and government during the 1970s, as shown by the passage of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1976, and the popularity of books like Plain English for Lawyers (1979).

References

Strunk, William Strunk Jr. & White, E.B. (1918) The Elements of Style, ISBN 0-205-30902-X　(paperback 4th ed., 2000)
Wydick, Richard C. (1979) Plain English for Lawyers Carolina Academic Press, ISBN 1-59460-151-8 (paperback 5th ed., 2005)
Rook, Fern Slaying the English Jargon (1992) Society for Technical Communication, ISBN 0-914548-71-9
Cutts, Martin (1996) The Plain English Guide Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860049-6
Williams, Joseph M. Style, Toward Clarity and Grace (1995) University Of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-89915-2

External links

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-Before the 20th century, it was fashionable for English-language [[writer]]s to use a very bloated, rambling style.  A [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentence]] could take up half a page, with its subordinate clauses following several tangents.  In some other European languages, such as [[German language|German]], sentences that were even more extensive were also frequent; the [[philosopher]] [[G. W. F. Hegel]] was known for writing sentences that easily occupied three pages.
+Before the 20th century, English-language [[writer]]s like to use long sentences and a very complicated style.  A [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentence]] could take up half a page with many irrelevant information.  In some other European languages, such as [[German language|German]], the use of long and irrelevant sentences were even more extensive; for example, the [[philosopher]] [[G. W. F. Hegel]] was known for writing sentences that easily occupied three pages.
 It is not clear where this tradition came from, but it may have originated with classical [[Latin language|Latin]], in which such prose was perfectly acceptable. Another example of trying to force Latin rules onto the English language: misguided educators in the 19th century, seeing that Latin doesn't have split infinitives, proclaimed that proper English must follow suit. Thus was born the mythical rule against splitting the infinitive form of a verb (for example, "to go") with one or more words ("to boldly go"). Latin uses only one word for the infinitive, making it impossible to split, but English uses two words ("to be"). Other mythical rules include "Don't end a sentence with a preposition," "Don't use contractions in formal writing," and "Don't use the pronoun 'you' in formal writing." As long as a writer's meaning is clear and the tone is appropriate for the audience, there is no reason whatsoever, real or imagined, to follow these "rules" that never were (no matter what your teacher told you in ninth grade).

Revision as of 13:04, 1 December 2006

History

Important Influences

See also

References

External links