A Course on Plain English

Last week, I attended a one-day course on plain English in London, conducted by the Plain English Campaign of the UK. I signed up for this course after receiving an award from the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS).

Plain English, or plain language, refers to the use of simple and clear English in writing. The Plain English Campaign began in the UK in 1979 to improve the clarity of documents and written material meant for the public. One of the services of the Plain English Campaign is training on plain English. They run one-day courses on plain English and grammar in the UK, and they also have online courses.

The one-day course on plain English covers topics such as writing style, shortening sentences, clear writing, active and passive sentences, using verbs instead of nouns, and lists. These topics may seem rather simple, but that’s because of the theme of the course: plain English! For written English to be clear to a wide audience, it has to be simple. The challenge, however, is to communicate complex information using plain English.

The course I attended was conducted by Mr Terry Denman, who brought a great mix of passion and knowledge. The participants received a workbook at the start, and Mr Denman led us through various exercises.

In one of the exercises, we had to try to understand a paragraph on holiday allowance for employees of a company. This paragraph was written in a bureaucratic and impersonal style, and it was made up of a single sentence with over 100 words! Then we looked at an example that had many medical terms. Although the second example had more technical content (or jargon), it was actually easier to understand because simpler language was used.

This example reminded me of why I wanted to attend the course: to learn more about plain English and try to apply it to research writing. Researchers take in and produce complex information, so research writing often ends up being a bit difficult to read and understand. I believe it is still possible to use the principles of plain English to make research writing clearer. This way, research papers stand a better chance of being read and cited.

If you’re interested in learning about plain English, please visit the Plain English Campaign’s website: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk.