Plain Language

Resource Library

Academic papers on plain language – with summaries (of course!)

  • Writing Matters

    Academics judge plain-language versions of papers as higher quality. They are more likely to accept them for a conference. They believe those papers have a better chance of being accepted at a good journal.

    — Published in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2024

  • The Secret of Impressive Writing? Keep it plain and Simple

    Writers who use long words needlessly and choose complicated font styles are seen as less intelligent than those who stick with basic vocabulary and plain text.

    — Published in Applied Cognitive Psychology

  • If it’s hard to read, it’s hard to do

    Processing fluency affects effort prediction and motivation.

    — Published in Psychological Science

  • Plain language in the US gains momentum: 1940 - 2015

    Plain-language practitioners expanded their concerns from how people understand the content — to the usability and accessibility of the content — to whether people trust the content.

    — Published in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 60(4):343–383

  • Words count: The empirical relationship between brief writing and summary judgment success

    Brief readability is significantly correlated to summary judgment success, but that correlation is stronger in federal than in state courts.

    — Published in The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute

TED talks on plain language

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Tips for plain language

  • Find out why words, structure, and design are the triple creators of clarity - and get an easy ‘how to’.

    The clarity triplet

  • Do you waffle? Here’s how to slash through your waffle with lightning clarity and keep only the powerful word

    Get binary

  • We ALL write jargon. This tip helps us root out the inevitable!

    How to root out jargon

  • Why do we write jargon? Why does it keep coming back? Here’s why, and what we can do about it.

    Scrub away some of your jargon

  • Challenging yourself to be creative with words is fantastic - when you’re writing poetry. Here’s why, in business, it’s a better idea to stick to familiar words.

    Use words that you understand

Tips for planning your writing

  • A clear goal is everything. So if your goal in writing is ‘They’ll be informed’, you need to dig deeper. Here’s how.

    ‘They’ll be informed’ is not a clear writing goal

  • Readers have questions. Answer them up front to hook your reader. What are your readers’ first three questions? Read on!

    Answer the first three questions

  • If you’re writing to discover what you think about your topic, you’ll write waaaay too much. Here’s one simple question to help you discover what you think.

    How to find your bottom line

  • Sounds obvious, right? But we don’t always do it. Here’s why we don’t ask directly, and why it’s a good idea to push through the discomfort.

    Ask directly for the thing you want

Tips for writing

  • No surprises here - shorter is usually sweeter. Here’s a question to help you cut out the unnecessary.

    Length really does matter

  • Don’t destroy your sentences while trying to make them short. Here’s a way to know if you’ve gone too far.

    Prune but don’t destroy

  • Are you keen to take an audience-based approach to using te reo Māori in your English writing? Here you go…

    Using te reo Māori in English

  • The subject line or title is your big chance to hook your reader! Here’s how to make the most of it.

    How to hook someone with your subject line

  • Have a tricky concept to get across? Here’s how to do it respectfully and effectively.

    How to explain unfamiliar words

Tips for formatting

  • People adore visual variety. Here’s how to make your writing visually interesting.

    Make raspberries out of your writing

  • You can paragraph it, or you can list it. Why are lists a great option? And how can you overdo them?

    Lists are your friend

  • Find out how to release your hidden lists to create more visual variety in your writing.

    Release the lists

Tips for tone

Tips for grammar

Tips for reviewing

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