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“Deft, generous, wise and insightful, Roy Jacobsen’s experience-based blog is one of the best bangs for the click that any writer will find on the Internet.”—Arthur Plotnik“Writing – Clear and Simple proves that it doesn’t take a professional to write clearly and with impact.” —Top 100 Blogs to Improve Your Writing in 2010
One of “The Top 30 Blogs on Writing” according to the Delaware Employment Law Blog.
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Category Archives: Plain Language
Has confusing government language caused trouble for you?
Annetta Cheek and the rest of the crew over at the Center for Plain Language are working on a bill that would require federal agencies to improve communication with the public “by writing regulations and other documents intended for public distribution … Continue reading
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Should you use Latin?
Latin was once the universal language—the lingua franca—among academics, and many writers would use Latin phrases and abbreviations—such as using sine qua non to describe something or someone essential, or saying Sic transit gloria mundi when someone fell from public favor—to show their erudition. (Nowadays, most people who want to show off their erudition use $25 words like erudition instead of two-bit words like book learnin’.)
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Posted in Plain Language, Word Choice
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Speaking corporatese does not make one a corporate philosopher
Matthew Stibbe points out this passage from a review of Carly Fiorina’s book, Tough Choices: Her bigger theme is leadership, and this is where Ms Fiorina fails. Again and again, she interrupts a good narrative with vain and verbose harangues … Continue reading
Posted in Plain Language
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Write simply, look smarter
If you want people to think you’re intelligent, write simply. It’s not as contradictory as it sounds, and there’s evidence to support it. Prize-winning evidence, in fact. Dr. Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University has won the Ig Nobel Prize in … Continue reading
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Two for the price of one: Subjects and verbs, and strings of prepositions
Over on the Writing Tools blog, Roy Peter Clark has a blog entry that shows two ways to lighten up dense prose. First, look for ways to keep the subject and the verb close to each other. The second is … Continue reading
Following up: An exercise in simplicity
I guess nobody cared to try untangling the paragraph I posted last Friday in Homework assignment: An exercise in simplicity. Can’t say I blame you. I’ve taken a stab at simplifying it, but there are some aspects of it that … Continue reading
Homework assignment: An exercise in simplicity
By way of the Signal v. Noise blog, I found the website for a festival that is ostensibly about simplicity. I think they needed to exercise a bit more simplicity when it came to the way they described the festival, … Continue reading
Plain language is search-engine friendly
Yet another reason to use plain language: People are more likely to find you and your information on the web. Think about the last time you were looking for information on the internet: What did you turn to first? I’m … Continue reading
Scholar Champions Clearer Legal Writing
Legalese is ubiquitous. It’s the fine print on the back of credit card statements, the license agreements for software, the warranties (and warnings and disclaimers) for new products. It often requires a magnifying glass and is considered to be convoluted, impenetrable, jargon-laden writing that is reviled by hapless readers.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Joseph Kimble, a Thomas Cooley Law School professor and editor-in-chief of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, as well as the author of Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plain Language (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2006). Kimble spoke to the Eye about his advocacy of plain language writing.
Posted in Articles, Business writing, Law, Plain Language, Usage
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Extreme Makeover: Sentence Edition
Ritch sent an e-mail asking if I could take a shot at decoding a sentence from some university regulations. Inspired by an “editorial makeover” post over on Liz Strauss’s blog, I decided to give it a whirl. The sentence in … Continue reading
