Linguistic links
UK AND EC ORGANIZATIONS
Apostrophe Protection Society
Promotes ‘the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language’.
http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
Fight the Fog campaign
A campaign for clear writing set up by the European Commission’s Translation Service.
http://ec.europa.eu/translation/writing/clear_writing/fight_the_fog_en.pdf
Health Literacy Group
Funded by the Department of Health and the Department for Innovations, Universities and Skills, the Health Literacy Group is free to join. The group is keen to link with others with an interest in health literacy, in the UK and abroad.
http://www.healthliteracy.org.uk/
How to write clearly (European Commission)
Drawing on Martin Cutts’s work, this booklet supports the EC’s Clear Writing campaign. It contains many before-and-after examples.
http://ec.europa.eu/translation/writing/clear_writing/how_to_write_clearly_en.pdf
Improvement and Development Agency
This resource looks at writing plain English, especially for people working in local government.
http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=1536729
Information Design Association
A group of information designers and other professionals in the UK with an interest in information design (of which plain language is an important part).
http://www.informationdesignassociation.org/
Local Government Improvement & Development
This organization – previously the Improvement and Development Agency – ‘supports improvement and innovation in local government, focusing on the issues that are important to councils and using tried and tested ways of working’. The website includes a large ‘Knowledge’ section, with information on plain English in local government.
http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8021380
National Year of Reading
2008 was the UK National Year of Reading: 'a year-long celebration of reading, in all its forms', which aims to 'increase awareness of the many values of reading - anything, anytime, anyplace - for children, families and adult learners alike'. The initiative is managed by a consortium of organizations that promote reading, led by the National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency, and on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
http://www.yearofreading.org.uk/
Office of the Parliamentary Counsel's writing guides
The style in which British laws are written strongly influences the rest of legal writing in this country. Changes towards a clearer style of law writing have occurred since the mid-1990s when the Tax Law Rewrite project began. Here are 2 writing guides that shed more light on current thinking:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/190037/dtg_recommendations250708.pdf
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/190016/clarity%20paper%20with%20hyperlinks.pdf.
Queen’s English Society (QES)
Aims ‘to defend unashamedly the precision, subtlety and marvellous richness of our language against debasement, ambiguity and other forms of misuse’.
http://www.queens-english-society.com/
Simple Language
The website of the campaign launched by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) to improve the EU's communication with citizens. You can post examples of complex sentences or jargon from EU documents and, if you wish, suggest clearer versions.
Simplification Centre
A new centre, based at the University of Reading.
http://www.simplificationcentre.org.uk/
The English project
A charitable company that aims ‘to promote awareness and understanding of the unfolding global story of the English language in all its varieties – past, present and future’.
http://www.englishproject.org/
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Plain Language Association InterNational (PLAIN)
A volunteer non-profit organization of plain-language advocates, professionals, and organizations committed to plain language. PLAIN has an email discussion group you can join.
http://plainlanguagenetwork.org/
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ENGLISH
Clarity
A worldwide group of lawyers and interested lay people. Its aim is the use of good, clear language by the legal profession; its twice-yearly journal includes articles relevant to plain language in other fields.
http://www.clarity-international.net/
Plain Language and Legislation
A booklet published by the Scottish Government.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/02/17093804/0/
Simply Understand
Every month, Corinne Pritchard collects 3 or 4 government consultation documents and asks people to vote for the one they want translated. She then boils them down to the key points, in plain language, so that people can tell the government what they really think.
http://www.simplyunderstand.com
Statute Law Society
A charitable body that aims to educate the legal profession and the public about the legislative process, and the structure and drafting of statute law.
http://www.statutelawsociety.org/index.html
REFERENCE
A Plain English Handbook: How to create clear SEC disclosure documents
Published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this handbook shows ‘how you can use well-established techniques for writing in plain English to create clearer and more informative disclosure documents’.
http://www.sec.gov/pdf/plaine.pdf
Bartleby
Publishes several classic books on line (in full), including The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, and The King’s English by Fowler.
http://www.bartleby.com/usage/
British National Corpus (BNC)
A corpus is a collection of samples of written and spoken language. Type in the word or phrase you’re interested in, and you’ll get a list of instances headed by a note of the total frequency of the word or phrase – useful for deciding which word or phrase is more familiar and so better to use in your document.
BusinessDictionary.com
Featuring over 20,000 terms and over 115,000 links between related terms, this website aims to provide ‘a clear and concise description of any and all business terms’.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/
Global Language Monitor
A company that documents, analyses and tracks trends in language usage worldwide. Founded in Silicon Valley in 2003, the Global Language Monitor is supported by a worldwide group of linguists.
http://www.languagemonitor.com/
Health Literacy and Plain Language Resource Guide
Health Literacy Innovations, a US-based company that ‘creates innovative tools to enhance health literacy’ has produced this comprehensive guide to available resources on health literacy.
http://healthliteracyinnovations.com/information/RGdownload
Online dictionary, translation and reference services
http://www.dictionarylink.com/
Online English grammar
http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/
Oxford Dictionaries
Useit.com
Jakob Nielsen is a leading web usability consultant, who writes a regular column on web design, Alertbox, and has published several books on the subject. His website contains a wealth of useful information on web design. Here you can also sign up to receive new Alertboxes when they are published.
Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please
An article by US law professor and international plain-language champion Joe Kimble, who collects examples of plain language saving money for organizations. First published in Volume 6 of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing (1996–97).
http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/kimble/dollars.htm
INTERESTING AND FUN
‘Blog’ of ‘Unnecessary’ Quotation Marks
A light-hearted look at an often-superfluous punctuation mark, with lots of photos and amusing analysis.
http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/
Dubyaspeak
Outgoing US president and noted word-mangler George W Bush could have been forgiven a parting smirk as he watched the country's 2 top lawyers get their texts in a tangle at the Obama inauguration love-fest. This website pays tribute to Dubya's rich legacy of verbal roadkill. The quotations are arranged in categories, including the particularly fine 'Dubya the Grammarian'
FreeRice
Paid for by sponsors who advertise on the site, FreeRice aims to provide English vocabulary to everyone free and to help end world hunger by providing free rice to the starving. The more questions you get right, the more grains are given.
Language Log
A collaborative language blog run by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman, with multiple guest linguists. Most of the posts are on language use in the media and popular culture.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/
Lexiophiles
A blog ‘inspired by all the language lovers we encounter every day’, this features articles and posts by a range of writers, and also recommends other language blogs and podcasts, as well as language programmes to study abroad.
Orwell Diaries
George Orwell was an early supporter of plain-English principles. Now The Orwell Prize, awarded for political writing, is publishing George Orwell's diaries as a blog. From 9 August 2008, Orwell's domestic and political diaries (from 9 August 1938 until October 1942) are being posted in real time, exactly 70 years after the entries were written.
http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/
The Times Spelling Bee
Supporting the annual competition for youngsters aged 11 and 12, this site includes lots of fun online games that youngsters (or adults: we couldn’t resist having a go) can play at home to test and improve their spelling
http://www.timesspellingbee.co.uk/
Twurdy
Twurdy is an internet search engine that colour-codes its results in line with their readability. Its goal is Twurdy's goal is to provide web searchers with information that is most appropriate for them.
Word Play
A collection of sites that feature fun with words.
http://www.wolinskyweb.net/word.htm
World Wide Words
Michael Quinion writes on international English from a British viewpoint.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm
OVERSEAS
You’ll find links to plain-language resources, government initiatives and other organizations in many different countries through PLAIN’s home page at http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/. We have a special interest in the following organizations, which we’ve helped to establish.
Center for Plain Language
The Center for Plain Language, a non-profit organization, wants government and business documents to be clear and understandable. It supports those who use plain language, trains those who should use plain language, and urges people to demand plain language in all the documents they receive, read, and use.
http://www.centerforplainlanguage.org/
Clear English India
Demand to Understand
Part of the Plain Campaign, sponsored by the US Center for Plain Language, this site includes a petition for people to sign demanding that government and business communicate more clearly: do please visit and add your name. Don’t miss the amusing public-service announcements, and the plain-language rap!
http://demandtounderstand.org/
Plain language in US government
This government website aims to improve communication from the federal government to the public. It contains a wealth of examples, tools, resources and guidelines.
Portugal
Disclaimer: Plain Language Commission is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.