Plain it is, simple it isnt

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Plain it is, simple it isnt

• Wendy Dore
• November 2001

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Plain language

• Writer
• Translator
• Editor

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Quality

• Quality represents goals that are often not
  quantified, such as satisfaction, confidence,
  beauty, and utility. They may in fact be more
  important than the quantified values! For
  example, quality perceived by clients may
  determine the overall success of a product.
• - Mark Edelman, intercom April 2001

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Quality work is

• Aesthetically appealing
• Satisfying to use and re-use
• Elegant
• A reflection on the company
• More than merely fit for use

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The writer

• If its a skill you can learn it
• Understand the topic
• Use plain language
• Linguistic knowledge and linguistic performance -
  confidence and the Imposter Syndrome
• Read widely, read your work aloud
• Know your master

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The challenge

• Writers must therefore constantly ask What am I
  trying to say? Surprisingly often they dont
  know. They must look at what they have written
  and ask Have I said it?
•  - William Zinsser On Writing Well

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The translator

• Super-user, and person most in need of clarity
• Consistent
• Unambiguous
• Clean under the hood
• Always write for translation

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The editor

• The ultimate end-user
• Freedom from knowing, freedom to know,
• confident and current
• Working the text and index, establishing rhythms
• What you will find

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Editing myths

• ? Never trash a writers work
• ? You can edit 24 pages an hour

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Fowler on editors
The impression must not be left, however, that
it is fatal to read over correct what one has
written. The moral is that correction requires as
much care as the original writing, or more the
slapdash, who should not be in such a hurry,
the uneducated corrector, who should not be
writing at all, are apt to make things worse than
they found them. Out of the frying-pan in H.W.
Fowler A Dictionary of Modern Usage (1926)
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and the Master ...

• Worthwhile content
• Sensible organization
• Readable style
• Effective design
• Strong logic and emphasis
• Absence of redundancy or waste
• - Don Bush The Friendly Editor, intercom June
  2001

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Evolution
Plain English becomes plain language Chaucer,
Wordsworth, Ogden, Churchill, Roosevelt,
President Jimmy Carter (Reagan), New York State,
Secretary of Commerce Arthur Levitt, US
Securities and Exchange Commission William du
Bay, Plain English a Historical Overview,
intercom Nov 1997 MD Morris, The Power of
Quiddity, intercom March 2001 William Blank,
Elegant Documentation, intercom April 2001
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Plain English definitions (1)
(1) English that is straightforward and easy to
understand. 1500 Chaucer 1986 ...empirical
research has shown how a plain English document
stands out in sharp contrast to a fancy or
rhetorical document English Today (2) Blunt,
no-nonsense language. ... but one twenty-fifth
as useful, or in plain English, nearly useless
United States Government report 1868 more
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Plain English definitions (2)
(3) Strong or foul language. ...Princess Anne,
who was apt to express herself in plain English
when she found herself upside down in a water
jump surrounded by clicking Nikons... Observer
1989 (4) In the later 20th century, a term
closely associated with at first diffuse but
increasingly focused international movement
against overly complex and misleading, especially
bureaucratic, usage.Plain English Campaign
Magazine 1989
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Plain English definitions (3)
Plain English is not simplified nor popular
language. It is ordinary language expressed
directly and clearly to convey a message simply
and effectively, while retaining all the
necessary legal and technical concepts so that
the accuracy of the message is not
affected. Mike Whale, Chartered Accountants of
New Zealand quoted in intercom, November 1997
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Plain English definitions (4)

• ...the use of the right words, in the right way,
  to convey our meaning in the clearest, simplest,
  shortest, and most courteous way possible. It is
  the job of plain English to tell the other person
  naturally and unaffectedly, pleasantly and
  persuasively, what we want him to know.
• Frank Eyre, Australian Plain English Foundation
• quoted in intercom, November 1997

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Global English
English written for use in English, but by
non-first-language speakers? Rachel McAlpines
Global English for Global Business confused,
disoriented, and irritated Twenty-Five
Tactics to Internationalize Your English,
intercom May 1998
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A Plain English Handbook

• By the Office of Investor Education and
  Assistance
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Nancy M Smith
• August 1998
• The Arthur Levitt book (again)

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Nancy Smith (1)

• Plain English writing ... does not mean deleting
  complex information to make the document easier
  to understand.
• more

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Nancy Smith (2)

• Using plain English assures the orderly and
  clear presentation of complex information so that
  users have the best possible chance of
  understanding it.
• Plain English means analyzing and deciding what
  information users need to make informed
  decisions, before words, sentences, or paragraphs
  are considered.
• more

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Nancy Smith (3)

• A plain English document uses words economically
  and at a level the audience can understand. Its
  sentence structure is tight. Its tone is
  welcoming and direct. Its design is visually
  appealing.
• A plain English document is easy to read and
  looks like its meant to be read.

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Points (1)

• Question the need for everything that appears in
  the document
• Question the need to repeat any information
• Discuss front matter, cover - why there
• Use defined terms sparingly
• Organize well - big picture first descriptive
  headers group related information match to
  user level e.g. educational review flow of
  information and restructure
• more

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Points (2)

• Use the active voice with strong verbs
• Try personal pronouns, they let you clarify
  what applies to reader use appealing
  tone avoid abstractions keep sentences
  short avoid the s/he dilemma? A pilot can
  use when operating their radio is gaining
  acceptance
• more

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Points (3)

• Omit superfluous words
• Choose the simpler synonym - replace jargon with
  short common words
• Bring abstractions down to earth - examples
• Use short sentences
• Keep S-V-O close together
• Write in the positive
• Keep sentence structure parallel
• Steer clear of respectively

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Ian Gordon on Punctuation

• STOPPERS - full stop, comma
• LINKERS - semi colon, colon, dash
• INTRUDERS explanatory , text , - text -
  (text)
• INTONERS - !, ?
• - Ian Gordon, Take my word for it p 91

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Try this

•  
•  
• I had had had he had had had had had had had had
  the examiners approval.
•  
• - Theo Cutten, Why Cant the English?

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Example - negative

• No. The condition in paragraph 13(a) does not
  apply to a situation in which the terms of a
  hybrid instrument permit, but do not require, the
  investor to settle the hybrid instrument in a
  manner that causes it not to recover
  substantially all of its initial recorded
  investment, assuming that the issuer does not
  have the contractual right to demand a settlement
  that causes the investor not to recover
  substantially all of its initial recorded
  investment.
•  

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Myth-teries and myth-takes

• ?WHILST is superior to (and somehow different
  from) WHILE
• whilst Chiefly Brit. Another word for while
• -The New Collins Concise Dictionary
•   ?A comma is redundant before and or or
• List comma or Oxford comma ...to separate
  items (including the last) in a list of more than
  two items..
• - The Oxford Guide to English Usage (1994) p 238
• Appendix I, Principles of Punctuation
• The options are Open, Close and Exit.

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More myth-takes

• ?DATA ARE not DATA IS
• For the great majority of American English
  speakers, criteria and data are now mass nouns,
  like information.
• - Fromkin and Rodman An Introduction to Language
  (1978) p 260
• In computing and allied fields it is treated as
  a mass noun (i.e. a collective item) and used
  with words like this, that, and much, and with
  singular verbs it is sometimes so treated in
  general use, e.g. Useful data has been
  obtained. (Winston Churchill).
• - The Oxford Guide to English Usage (1994) p 127
•  
• In computing the data is/are pretty well a
  mass, not a set of discrete things as the results
  in medical research are, so I feel that the
  non-count use is more appropriate in computing.
• - E. Weiner, June 1996
•  

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AmericaniZe

• ?The Z spelling forms (realize, rationalize,
  digitize, analyze, etc.) are Americanisms
• holdings 1611 realize, 1689 realise There
  has been a trend over the last century towards
  -ise. This is due partly, perhaps, to the
  influence of French partly to over-correction on
  the false analogy of comprise, televise, etc.
  (which have an etymological root in -is-) but
  most of all to the mistaken but widespread belief
  that -ize- spellings are Americanisms
• - Jeremy Marshall, OED, in newspaper June 1995
•  
• Noah Webster, who advocated a distinctively
  American English, instituted a number of spelling
  reforms, including dropping the u from favour and
  using the -er ending instead of -re in words
  like meter, besides not doubling consonants in
  spellings like focused, worshiping, and
  marvelous. ...
• - Copy Editor February/March 1997 p 2
•  

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Designing the document

• Hierarchy - title to text
• Typography serif for headlines legible
  size minimize emphasis - size/weight, avoid caps
  and underline
• White space, side bars, shading, rules, dots,
  examples
• Justify left, ragged right
• Use leading
• Short lines columns, short paragraphs
• Bullets, tables

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The rest

• Covers graphics basics (not much)
• Black is a colour, use typeface weight to balance
  page
• Readability formulas and style checkers put in
  their place
• Time saving tips excellent on restructuring
  technique

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Example - original

• 4.2 Scenarios
• Scenarios are included to assist with the
  understanding of the maintenance operations
  concepts. The layout of the facility by the
  function of each room is not intended to depict
  the physical layout. The purpose of the layout
  is to provide an awareness of the coordination,
  functional isolation, and the overall scope of
  tasks described in other sections of the
  operations concept. The scenarios were selected
  based upon the complexity and overall impact upon
  operations.
• more

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Example - original (2)

• The failure scenarios are typical of the process
  performed but are greatly dependent upon the type
  of failure, severity of the failure, and time of
  the occurrence of the failure. For example, the
  failure of the Emergency Bypass Processor when
  operations are being conducted with the primary
  servers in not catastrophic. A failure of the
  EBP during its use at a time the facility is
  operating in Emergency Bypass Mode is
  catastrophic. Therefore, the scenarios are
  representative of the actions to be performed but
  are not the specific actions performed for all
  failures of the type described.

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Example - longer (1)

• 1.2 Scenario diagrams
• The follows diagrams illustrate some key
  maintenance operation concepts.
• Facility layout
• The facility shown is laid out according to the
  function of each room. This does not represent
  an actual physical layout, but is used to show
• the overall scope of tasks
• individual roles
• how activities are coordinated
• more

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Example - longer (2)

• Failure scenarios
• Each diagram identifies some of the activities
  that may be required if there is a failure of the
  type shown. Failures vary in complexity, and the
  nature of a failure determines its impact on the
  overall operation of the system.
• 
  The
  diagrams do not show every action that may be
  required, and the actions shown may not be
  required for every failure of this type.
• 
  The
  processes performed when failure occurs depend
  on
• the type of failure
• the severity of the failure
• when the failure occurs
• more

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Example - longer (3)

• For example, it is not catastrophic if the
  Emergency Bypass Processor (EBP) fails while
  operations are being conducted using the primary
  servers it is catastrophic if the EBP fails
  while the facility is operating in Emergency
  mode.
• Maintenance Levels 1,2, and 3
• A separate diagram shows each of three possible
  support structures. They are identified as
  Maintenance Level 1, Maintenance Level 2, and
  Maintenance Level 3.

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Summary

• Understand what you need to say
• Use the short word - short phrase - short
  sentence - short paragraph - short topic...
  chapter... section... volume... manual/help
  file...
• Read your work aloud
• Be consistent and confident in your word choice,
  punctuation, use of styles, and order of
  information

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Conclusion

• It is not always easy to write a document in
  plain English, but it is always easy to read one.
• - William du Bay, intercom 1997      

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A word of caution

• I mark the firm restraint with which you write
• Im with you there, of course
• You use the snaffle and the curb all right
• But wheres the bloody horse?
• - Roy Campbell