Why clear English? Why not plain English?

Many people rightly question what "plain English" means. Some feel strongly that it suggests a mundane approach to writing that does not lend itself to difficult or complex topics.

This may explain why many organisations tend not to send senior staff on plain English training. Such people are usually competent writers and prefer not to spend a day given over largely to basic skills such as using active voice verbs, personal pronouns and short sentences. Such plain English training can often be based on crude contrasts between ancient examples of bureaucratic language and much better, crisper passages. It's entertaining, but distorted and doesn't reflect the type of language found in much modern writing.

We cover traditional plain English areas thoroughly, but also spend plenty of time looking at other important writing areas. These include deciding why a document needs to be written and whom it is for, how to use jargon sensibly, and how to avoid abrasiveness, ambiguity and unnecessary detail.

Being clear and a little imaginative about these areas helps authors decide necessary content; doing so helps them structure their material and decide the tone of their document. Much of the day is spent looking at how real documents can be made much clearer. Some are often from the client organisation, so staff can quickly see the relevance of the training.

Complex topics sometimes demand complex language. Further, English is a subtle language whose wide resources we should use if we are to communicate intelligently and effectively. Worrying about whether our average sentence length is more than 18 words, how many words of more than two syllables we have used, and whether we have broken a rule by having more than one passive voice verb in three lines isn't going to take us far along the road to meaningful clarity.

Good, clear language should speak unambiguously and effectively to the reader, but shouldn't demean the writer. The simple syntax and diction that benefit a public leaflet will probably not suit a lengthy proposal or report. In such documents information, perhaps about technical points, needs to be arranged and expressed using the clearest language for the purpose and the reader. Plain English skills are only a part of achieving true clarity.