by Jayne Cravens, coyoteboard.com
Writing and editing have long been my superpowers. Those
abilities have landed me many jobs and have made me successful in
those jobs. I confess, however, that I've always struggled with
how to teach good writing.
The best writing teacher I ever had was a professor at Western
Kentucky University: I was a journalism major, and he taught the
feature writing class. But most of my writing success has come
from three sources: reading literature, reading printed newspapers
in the 1970s through the 1990s, and working as a journalist at
award-winning newspapers (and, therefore, having my work edited by
world-class professionals).
Good writing can make the difference in whether or not someone
believes you or trusts you. It can mean the difference in
accessibility and something being completely out-of-reach.
If you think AI is going to be all you need to write well, you
are wrong:
This web page has advice on how to write well and links to
resources from others.
I believe passionately in using plain language and avoiding
jargon whenever possible.
Plain language is when written communication has wording and
structure so clear that the intended readers can easily understand
what they read as intended by the author(s). When it comes to
technical writing, plain language also means that the audience can
use that information as its intended.
The definition of "plain" depends on the audience, of course:
what is plain for one audience may not be plain at all for another
audience.
Plain language is not only easy to understand, it's also easier
to translate, and for your online information, it's likely that
someone, somewhere, is using an online tool to translate it into a
different language. Plain language is also easier to understand by
people for whom English is not their first language and for people
with intellectual disabilities.
The Center for Plain Language has this basic and excellent advice
for writing in plain language:
Keep it short and to the point
Set a helpful tone
Pick the right words
The language works when readers understand the words and
grasp the intended message quickly and confidently.
I think this advice is the heart of good writing. Is my writing a
perfect example of plain language? No. But I do always try
to think about who I am writing for and how I want them to act for
feel about what they have just read, whether that's the
introduction to an annual report or a social media post or a
formal letter of complaint or a thank you note and everything else
I write.
A lot of marketing folks swear by the Seven C's of Communication:
Perhaps it seems strange to follow a section encouraging plain
language use with a section on the importance of expanding your
vocabulary. But using plain language doesn't mean NOT using a
variety of words in your text. Having a large vocabulary can
increase your ability to communicate. Using more precise words,
when speaking makes you a more effective communicator. Having a
large vocabulary means you may know what word would be best suited
for one audience and what word would be better suited for a
different audience.
In addition, a large vocabulary also enables you to understand
others’ ideas better, and studies have shown that children who
develop a rich vocabulary tend to be deeper thinkers and express
themselves better.
The best way to expand your vocabulary is to read things in
print: books, both nonfiction and fiction (literature), and
magazines. Read something substantial in print every day, for at
least 30 minutes. Not only will you expand your vocabulary, you
will find yourself being able to concentrate better when you read
things online and when listening to others.
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun. In the sentence "She
was a fast runner, but he was a slow runner", the words fast
and slow are adjectives. In that sentence, those
adjectives are needed: if you take out the adjectives, the
sentence doesn't convey any difference in the people: they are
both just runners.
A way to improve your writing can be as simple as looking at all
the adjectives you have written in the first draft of something
and decide which are necessary and which aren't. For instance,
look at every instance you have used the word very. Is it
really necessary? Does saying "She was very beautiful"
really improve the sentence "She was beautiful"? No.
Reading your writing out loud is a fantastic way to find out if
the text is clear. You don't have to read it to anyone else; just
read it to yourself. If you have never done this, you will be
amazed at how many mistakes you catch, and how often you realize
you could improve a sentence you have written.
Dorothy Parker, an american poet, literary critic, writer of fiction and sarcastic wise-cracker, said:
If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy.
I do not condone violence but, otherwise, Dorothy is right. The
Elements of Style is an excellent and very short book that
can help you write better. In his own short book, On Writing,
Stephen King writes:
There is little or no detectable bullshit in that book. (Of course, it's short; at eighty-five pages it's much shorter than this one.) I'll tell you right now that every aspiring writer should read The Elements of Style. Rule 17 in the chapter titled Principles of Composition is 'Omit needless words.' I will try to do that here.
I think the Associated
Press Stylebook and/or the Chicago Manuel of
Style are essential references books for good writing.
I rely on both regularly.
Use AI for spell-check, absolutely. Use AI for grammar check only
for your review: never give AI all your text and then push the
"fix it" button or whatever is offered for AI to rewrite your text
as it sees fit. That means going through each AI suggestion and
saying "yes" or "no" to it. AI can be great for finding violations
in grammar rules, but not so great at improving what you have
written with its own suggestions. The more you do this
line-by-line review, the more you will see just how much AI can
rewrite your work so that it isn't at all what you want to say
anymore.
I offer this
Horrific experience with AI to show you why I abhor the idea
of allowing AI to rewrite something without your close review.
Plain
language guide series from digital.gov.
These guides from the US federal government are designed to help
web managers and content strategists that work for US government
agencies to understand why and how to create content that is in
plain language: content that is clear and easy to understand.
Center for
Plain Language.
A non-profit organization that helps government agencies and
businesses write clear and understandable communications.
Plain
Language for Public Health
The Public Health Communications Collaborative created a Plain
Language for Public Health guide to support public health
communicators in creating messaging to advance health literacy,
build trust in your organization as a source of information, and
promote overall community health. In this guide, you’ll find
plain language principles, simple techniques that can make your
communications more accessible, and resources to learn more
about plain language to help build your communications skills..
Plain English
Campaign. (UK focused)
This initiative officially began in 1979, to campaign against
gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information. All of
its services and resources require you to pay a fee, but what
the web site does offer for free is some excellent arguments for
using plain language.
Ernest
Hemingway's writing style can help you write better.
I love the writing style of Ernest Hemingway. I think his
writing has so much to teach anyone that wants to be a better
writer. This blog explains why.
ProPublica
experiments with ultra-accessible plain language in stories
about people with disabilities
For an investigation into denied disability benefits in Arizona
and an accompanying editor’s note, ProPublica experimented in
writing in a form of plain language designed specifically to
make information more accessible to those with intellectual and
developmental disabilities. Reading this article, and seeing
before and after versions of text, is a great way to learn about
simplifying language.
Understanding the Flesch–Kincaid
Measurement.
Flesch–Kincaid is used to measure how difficult it is for a
reader to understand a given passage of written English. The F–K
reading grade level was developed under contract to the U.S.
Navy in 1975 by J. Peter Kincaid and his team. The F–K formula
was first used by the Army for assessing the difficulty of
technical manuals in 1978 and soon after became a United States
Military Standard. Pennsylvania was the first U.S. state to
require that automobile insurance policies be written at no
higher than a ninth-grade level (14–15 years of age) of reading
difficulty, as measured by the F–K formula. This is now a common
requirement in many other states and for other legal documents
such as insurance policies. Understanding this measurement can
help improve your writing for different audiences.
my
web site home page my consulting services
& my workshops &
presentations my credentials & expertise my research projects my book: The Last Virtual Volunteering
Guidebook How to Support
This Web Site & My Work (or to say thank you
for such) contact me or see my schedule My Resources for Community Outreach, With & Without
Tech My Resources
for Nonprofit, NGO & other
mission-based management My Technology Tips for Non-Techies My Advice for Web Development, Maintenance,
Marketing for non-Web designers My Resources For people & groups that want
to volunteer linking to or from my web site &
view this web site's privacy
policy. Coyote Helps Foundation
how to support my work & this
web site 
Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by the poster/distributor. This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied warranty.
Permission is granted to copy, present and/or distribute a limited amount of material from my web site without charge if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:
Otherwise, please contact me for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials (for instance, in a class or book or online event for which you intend to charge).
The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2026