Plain English is the art of writing clearly, concisely, and in a way that precisely communicates your message to your intended audience. This book offers expert advice to help writers of all abilities improve their written English. With 30 chapters, each centred around a practical guideline, its coverage is extensive, including lessons on vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, layout, proofreading, and organization. There are also hundreds of real examples to show how it's done, with handy 'before' and 'after' versions. All this is presented in a straightforward and engaging way.
This new edition has been fully revised, reorganized, and updated to make its content even more accessible. There are new chapters discussing customer-service writing and common blunders in the workplace, while other sections have been amended to update examples and provide easier routes through the book. The chapter on sexism, in particular, has been heavily expanded to advise on the use of inclusive language in general. A new appendix has also been added, summarising the history of plain English from Chaucer to the present day.
Acknowledgements Starting points The thirty guidelines Summary of the twelve main guidelines 1: Planning comes first 2: Organizing your material in a reader-centred structure 3: Writing short sentences and clear paragraphs 4: Preferring plain words 5: Writing concisely 6: Favouring active-voice verbs 7: Using vigorous verbs 8: Using vertical lists 9: Converting negative to positive 10: Using good punctuation 11: Using good grammar 12: Keeping errors in Czech: its time to Proof read 13: Dealing with some troublesome words and phrases 14: Using or avoiding foreign words 15: Undoing knotty noun strings 16: Reducing cross-references 17: Exploring and exploding some writing myths 18: Avoiding clichés 19: Pitching your writing at the right level 20: Writing sound starts and excellent endings 21: Creating better emails 22: Using inclusive language 23: Using alternatives to words alone 24: Caring enough about customers to write to them clearly 25: Overseeing colleagues' writing 26: Writing better instructions 27: Clarifying for the Web 28: Making legal language lucid 29: Writing low-literacy plain English 30: Clarifying page layout: some basics Appendix 1: Commonest words Appendix 2: A short history of plain-English moments Sources and notes Index
