{"id":6148,"date":"2021-03-22T03:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T10:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=6148"},"modified":"2021-03-22T07:27:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T14:27:18","slug":"resources-to-learn-plain-language-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2021\/03\/resources-to-learn-plain-language-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Resources to learn plain language writing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" height=\"218\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/news.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5011\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A colleague of mine in another country wants to improve her report writing and writing for the web. She works in a government water &amp; sanitation project. English is not her first language. She has a number of audiences she must write for, via various reports, briefing papers, project reports and the web: donors (mostly foreign governments), other government offices in her own country, the media in her own country and residents of her country, especially those her office is trying to help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think resources on plain language are the best guidance for writers anywhere. I use my journalism training and experience, which was steeped in plain language, to write reports, and at UN offices, I got a tremendous amount of great feedback from colleagues about my reports, along the lines of &#8220;Wow, I could understand this!&#8221;  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are the free online resources I&#8217;m recommending to my colleague. Note that some of these resources link to even more resources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2020\/11\/write-to-reward-your-reader\">Write to Reward Your Reader<\/a>, from the Harvard Business Review<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.plainlanguage.gov\/\">US Federal Government Plain Language promotion &amp; resources<\/a>. Plain language makes it easier for the public to read, understand, and use government communications.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/centerforplainlanguage.org\/learning-training\/five-steps-plain-language\/\">Five Steps to Plain Language<\/a>. From the <a href=\"https:\/\/centerforplainlanguage.org\">Center for Plain Language<\/a>. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/centerforplainlanguage.org\/learning-training\/templates-tools-training\/\">Plain Language Templates, Tools and Training<\/a>. From the <a href=\"https:\/\/centerforplainlanguage.org\/\">Center for Plain Language<\/a>. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/healthliteracy\/developmaterials\/plainlanguage.html\">Plain Language Materials &amp; Resources for communicating regarding public health<\/a>. From the CDC.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/communicatehealth.com\/\">Communicate Health<\/a>, a health education and communication firm specializing in improving health literacy through user-centered design, research, and content development. Resources promote usability and accessibility of public health materials. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.niemanlab.org\/2020\/11\/propublica-experiments-with-ultra-accessible-plain-language-in-stories-about-disabilities\/\">ProPublica experiments with ultra-accessible plain language<\/a> in stories about people with disabilities. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niemanlab.org\">Nieman Journalism Lab<\/a>, based at Harvard, &#8220;an attempt to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What would YOU recommend for my colleague?<\/strong> Say what you would recommend in the comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also see: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2019\/01\/humor\/\">Humanitarians explain their jobs \u2013 badly<\/a> (humor)<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2018\/06\/plainlanguage\/\">Awards for plain language<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2019\/09\/why-how-to-make-volunteering-as-accessible-as-possible\/\">Why &amp; how to make volunteering as accessible as possible<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2016\/10\/websitephilanthropy\/\">Research Explaining How Websites Encourage Volunteering &amp; Philanthropy<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/12\/unwelcomed\/\">Making certain volunteers feel unwelcomed because of your language<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/04\/do-you-welcome-people-with-your-language\/\">Do you welcome people with your language?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2020\/06\/systemic-exclusion-in-volunteer-engagement\/\">Systemic Exclusion in Volunteer Engagement<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2019\/06\/how-to-counter-the-ongoing-drop-in-volunteer-firefighter-numbers\/\">How to counter the ongoing drop in volunteer firefighter numbers<\/a> (includes how language used by firefighters about younger people discourages those people from volunteering)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/donate_icon_small.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4685\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/\">my web site<\/a>&nbsp;and would like to&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/me\/payme.shtml\">support<\/a>&nbsp;the time that went into&nbsp;researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work),&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotebroad.com\/me\/payme.shtml\"><strong>here is how you can help<\/strong><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A colleague of mine in another country wants to improve her report writing and writing for the web. She works in a government water &amp; sanitation project. English is not her first language. She has a number of audiences she must write for, via various reports, briefing papers, project reports and the web: donors (mostly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[26,642,2165,2163,2167,1934,2164,2166,518,1334],"class_list":["post-6148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-relationsoutreach","tag-accessibility","tag-accessible","tag-easy-to-understand","tag-inclusve","tag-persuasion","tag-plain","tag-simple","tag-understandable","tag-usability","tag-welcoming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-1Ba","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6148"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6252,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6148\/revisions\/6252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}