Plain English

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

Before the 20th century, it was fashionable for English-language writers to use a very bloated, rambling style. A sentence could take up half a page, with its subordinate clauses following several tangents. In some other European languages, such as 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.

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).

See also

• Style guide
• Basic English
• Plain language
• Plain Language Movement

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

• PlainLanguage.Com
• Plain English Campaign
• Plainlanguage.gov
• Plain English Foundation
• Politics and the English Language
• Plain language in Sweden, the results after 30 years
• The Word Centre
• Nigel Grant Training
• The WriteMark, New Zealand's plain English standard
• Write Group, New Zealand's plain English specialists
• Word Centre, The Plain English People U.K.
• United States Plain Language Network
• The Plain Language Association, International
• Clear as Mud, an Article from the BBC
• The cost of poor writing in business
• EServer TC Library: Minimalism (a collection of resources about plain language)