When I was a kid I used to wonder what a 'patron' was. Having a patron for a voluntary organisation like the Girl Guides seemed gratuitious if not smarmy at the time. So why am I grinning inanely today? Plain...
Blog: Content writing and content strategy insights
Posts tagged "plain English"
A plain English lexicon kind to public servants
The invaluable Plain English Lexicon analyses 1200 words that occur frequently in British public-information documents. Which words will lay people understand? It's not as simple as choosing 1-syllable words over 3-syllable words every time. The lexicon draws on research evidence...
NZ's Plain English Power
Would you like to join a brand new New Zealand network of plain English supporters? (Free.) We need you! Please look at our goals. If you want to join, please email me. And say how you would like to be...
Rubbish dumps and swimming pools
The value of plain English on local government web sites was highlighted in a couple of ALGIM 08 presentations. During the floods of 2007, the Northland Regional Council web site translated weather forecasts to plain English, numbering them on a...
Rudduncancy alert
Neil James diagnoses a (curable) disease in Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. Among the unfortunate utterances he quotes: "in the process of implementing world's best-practice instruments" "committed to implementation during the course of the year ahead" "in recent times...