Plain English Writing to Write Clearly and Concisely ? Plain English ...

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Plain English (sometimes referred to as plain language) is a generic term for communication styles that emphasize clarity, conciseness and the avoidance of technical language.

The intention is to write in a manner that is easily understood by the target audience: appropriate to their reading skills and knowledge, clear and direct, free of clich? and unnecessary jargon.

Here are some plain English writing tips to help you write more clearly and concisely:

Identify Your Audience

Think about why the reader wants to read your writing. Also identify people who will be interested in your writing, even if they are not directly affected. Write to everyone who is interested. And keep in mind your average readers? level of understanding and comprehension.

Write in Active Voice

Voice is the form a verb takes to indicate whether its subject acts or is acted upon. When the subject of a verb does something (acts), the verb is in the active voice. When the subject of a verb receives the action (is acted upon), the verb is in the passive voice. Because the active voice emphasizes the doer of an action, it is usually briefer, clearer, and more emphatic than the passive voice. Whenever possible, use active voice in your writings.

Keep It Short

You will communicate more clearly if you keep sentences short. Aim for an average sentence length of 20 words, with no one sentence running over 40 words. Cover only one subject in each paragraph, and keep paragraphs under 10 or 12 lines.

Use Personal Pronouns

Help users picture themselves in the text. Pronouns help readers relate better. When you address the reader as ?you?, he or she feels directly addressed. Your writing will have a greater impact on the readers.

Write in Visually Appealing Style

With visual layout, you draw your readers? attention to information they need to know. You will help your reader by making the main points readily apparent and grouping related items together. Use visually appealing presentation and your readers will be more likely to understand you writing.

Steps to make your writing visually appealing include:

• Use lots of informative headings: Make sure each heading has enough information to help your reader understand the content of the paragraph or section.
• Write short sections and paragraphs: Short sections and paragraphs break up the material into easily understood segments. They also look easier to read and understand.
• Use vertical lists: Vertical lists highlight a series of items in a visually clear way. Use vertical lists to help your readers focus on important material.

Do Not Be Wordy

Eliminate needless words. Excess or elaborate words make your writing weak.

Structure Your Writing

How you organize the document and what headings you include are extremely important in determining what effect your document will have on its readers. To achieve the highest rate of comprehension, here are some guidelines on structure:

• put the main message first
• divide your material into short sections
• group related ideas together
• put material in an order that makes the best sense to the reader
• use lots of headings

Use Graphics and Tables

Use figures such as charts, tables, and other illustrations. Mention or introduce every figure in the text before it occurs and place the figure close to the text that explains it. Make sure all figures have informative headings.

Use Parallel Phrasing

State related ideas in similar grammatical form. Paralleling your language brings your thoughts together and makes it easier for your readers to understand your writing.

Do Not Use Unnecessary Qualifiers

Excess or elaborate words make your writing sluggish. And unnecessary qualifiers add no additional meaning to a sentence.

Do Not Use Multiple Negatives

When you can put a negative statement as a positive one without changing the meaning of it, do it. You will save readers from unnecessary mental work. Using more than one negative muddles the meaning of your writing. Accentuate the positive when you can.

Avoid Redundancies

To make an idea clear, you do not need to state it in as many ways as possible. Using different words that mean the same thing can actually make your document harder to understand. To avoid repetition, if you are thinking of describing something with two different words that have the same meaning, use the word that sounds more powerful.

www.plainlanguage.gov

Source: http://writingtipsguidesresources.com/plain-english-writing-tips-to-write-clearly-and-concisely-124/

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