Archive for the ‘Writing Tips’ Category

17
Jun

PlainLanguage.gov Website

   Posted by: TimMc   in Resources for Writers, Writing Tips

This is a good resource for writers. While the focus of PlainLanguage.gov is on “Improving Communication from the Federal Government to the Public”, it still contains many helpful guidelines and resources. In order to give you a better idea of what “Plain Language” is, here is the description given on their website:

What is Plain Language?

Plain language (also called Plain English) is communication your audience can understand the first time they read or hear it. Language that is plain to one set of readers may not be plain to others. Written material is in plain language if your audience can:

  • Find what they need;
  • Understand what they find; and
  • Use what they find to meet their needs.

There are many writing techniques that can help you achieve this goal. Among the most common are:

  • Logical organization with the reader in mind
  • “You” and other pronouns
  • Active voice
  • Short sentences
  • Common, everyday words
  • Easy-to-read design features

No one technique defines plain language. Rather, plain language is defined by results—it is easy to read, understand, and use.

I’d encourage you to check out the site. Let me know what you think of it. Now, if we could just get the government to become more fiscally responsible in the way they communicate with us (thinking of the wasted dollars spent on communications regarding the recent tax rebates)!!!

No Comments
6
Jun

Writing Tips from George Orwell

   Posted by: TimMc   in Famous Writers, Writing Tips

While I certainly do not agree with George Orwell on politics, religion, and many other issues, I do appreciate his tips on writing well. He was a passionate defender of good writing. Here are some of Orwell’s more famous writing tips.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

  1. What am I trying to say?
  2. What words will express it?
  3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
  4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

  1. Could I put it more shortly?
  2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

  1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
  2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
  3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
  4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
  5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
  6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

* From Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language”

No Comments