Content treasure trove
The ultimate grammar guide, writing for older people, a super-simple guide to plain English, and how to write about actions.
At some point, I will stop saying thank you for sharing Plain English Weekly, but today is not that day. There are 422 of you receiving this! Thank you for sharing!
Look out for a very short survey in an upcoming edition of this newsletter. I'd love to know what sort of content you might find useful next. A podcast? An online course? Live and recorded webinars? The world is our plain English oyster.
Don't forget you can just reply to this email and share your thoughts, suggestions and exciting secrets too.
That's it. Enjoy the links...
Iain
Grammar Rules: The Ultimate Guide
Grammarly is a useful tool that checks your writing for bad spells and stuff. But the company blog is also a content treasure trove of handy information, including this giant guide to pretty much every word-related term or phrase you can think of. Punctuation. Syntax. It's got the lot.
South Tyneside Council's super-simple plain English guide
Many local council's in the UK will now include a web page that explains their policy on clear language. This example from South Tyneside is deliciously concise and provides a near-perfect introduction to the world of plain English.
Guidelines for age-inclusive communication [PDF 165KB]
Apologies for linking straight to a PDF, but I can't find the content on an actual web page. The good news is these guidelines from Changing the Narrative give you some great tips for writing about age and for older people.
How to write about actions and their effects
First of all, you should read Adobe's guidelines on inclusive language. And then in the page on writing with visuals, you'll find a short table that shows some examples of how to write actions. Things like, 'Enter email' instead of 'Type email address', as the user may not be typing if they are using a screen reader.
New reader?
Join a growing community of 400+ plain language champs and start getting advice and resources that help you write clearer, more accessible content.