Plain English

The Plain English movement strives to streamline, simplify and clarify written communications. Plain English encourages writers to:

> Use active voice with strong verbs
> Try to use personal pronouns
> Bring abstraction down to earth
> Omit superfluous words
> Write in the positive
> Edit long sentences.

Use active voice with strong verbs

Use the active voice with strong verbs to draw attention to actions and information.

Readers quickly understand sentences in an active voice because we typically think and process information this way. Sentences in a passive voice require extra processing as we convert passive forms into active. For example:

Active	A QA technician must sign off each report item.
Passive	Each report item must be signed off by a QA technician.
Passive with no agent	Each report item must be signed off.

You'll find many examples of "passive with no agent" constructions in most technical documents. Use this form when it doesn't matter if your reader to know who or what performs the action, or when you want to diffuse or authority or responsibility, as in:

It has been determined that to better serve out clients there will now be a $2 service charge for each transaction.

Another (bad) example:

The foregoing sample printout is intended to assist institutions using this report in understanding the report details that they will see on their reports.

To say the same thing in Plain English, make the voice active, give the sentence a strong verb, and throw out the filler words:

This sample printout shows report details you will see on your reports.

Remove nominalizations

A nominalization is a noun created from a verb that usually ends in -tion. It is usually less direct than a strong verb, and requires more support words. For example:

The team will make an evaluation ....
The team will evaluate ....

The task force made a determination ....
The task force determined ....

ACME must make an application ....
ACME must apply ....

Your writing becomes cleaner and clearer when you replace nominalizations with strong verbs. For example:

Before	There is the possibility of prior product manager approval of these costs.
After	The product manager might approve these costs in advance.

Before	ACME will have no ownership of the ancillary hardware.
After	ACME will not own the ancillary hardware

Before	The review committee will provide appropriate information to the shift leader ....
After	The review committee will tell the shift leader....

Thank you for your attention in this matter.