Oxford Guide to Plain English, 5th Edition

381 Pages·5·2.972 MB·English

by  Martin Cutts

OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 10/01/20, SPi
oxford guide to
Plain English
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 10/01/20, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 10/01/20, SPi
OXFORD GUIDE TO
Plain English
FIFTH EDITION
Martin Cutts
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 06/02/20, SPi
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
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© Martin Cutts 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2013, 2020
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First published as The Plain English Guide 1995
Published as The Quick Reference Plain English Guide 1999
Second edition published 2004
Third edition published 2009
Fourth edition published 2013
Fifth edition published 2020
Impression: 1
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019946744
ISBN 978–0–19–884461–7
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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 10/01/20, SPi
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Starting points ix
The thirty guidelines xxiv
Summary of the twelve main guidelines xxvi
1 Planning comes first 1
2 Organizing your material in a reader-centred structure 10
3 Writing short sentences and clear paragraphs 22
4 Preferring plain words 33
5 Writing concisely 57
6 Favouring active-voice verbs 68
7 Using vigorous verbs 78
8 Using vertical lists 85
9 Converting negative to positive 93
10 Using good punctuation 98
11 Using good grammar 119
12 Keeping errors in Czech: its time to Proof read 129
13 Dealing with some troublesome words and phrases 137
14 Using or avoiding foreign words 154
15 Undoing knotty noun strings 159
16 Reducing cross-references 161
17 Exploring and exploding some writing myths 164
18 Avoiding clichés 173
19 Pitching your writing at the right level 178
20 Writing sound starts and excellent endings 184
21 Creating better emails 189
22 Using inclusive language 194
23 Using alternatives to words alone 205
24 Caring enough about customers to write to them clearly 213
25 Overseeing colleagues’ writing 220
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vi Contents
26 Writing better instructions 229
27 Clarifying for the Web 243
28 Making legal language lucid 253
29 Writing low-literacy plain English 269
30 Clarifying page layout: some basics 282
Appendix 1: Commonest words 301
Appendix 2: A short history of plain-English moments 307
Sources and notes 319
Index 325
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Acknowledgements
My thanks go to those who have given help and advice on parts of
this edition. Chapter 29 draws heavily on the practical knowledge of
Janet Pringle, a Canadian expert on the needs of low-literacy readers,
and she also commented in detail on the draft of that chapter. My col-
league Sarah Carr commented on chapter 19 and conducted several
readability tests for me. Christina Gleeson, another Plain Language
Commission associate, spent many hours extracting word-frequency
data from the sources. I remain grateful to Monica Sowash, who ran
the focus-group interviews for the original edition in 1995. Throughout,
my wife Ingrid has given constant help and support.
The book is dedicated to my parents, Ivor and Joan Cutts; they
raised me with an interest in words and gave unstintingly of their time
and encouragement.
Several organizations have allowed me to include parts of their
printed documents. I’m grateful to the Local Government Ombudsman
for an example in chapter 4; Calgary Sexual Health Centre, Canada,
for examples in chapter 29; and the following for examples in chap-
ter 30—Enfield Homes, YHA (England and Wales), Simplification
Centre, St Albans District Council, Yorkshire Water, and Enquire
(Children in Scotland). The ‘Nebraska’ examples in chapter 27 are
quoted from <http://www.nngroup.com> with permission.
About the author
Martin Cutts is director of Clearest.co.uk Ltd, which owns the trading
name Plain Language Commission. The company provides editorial
and training services in the plain-language field and runs the Clear
English Standard accreditation scheme for documents and websites.
His books include Lucid Law (2000), Clarifying Eurolaw (2001), and
Clarifying EC Regulations (co-author Emma Wagner, 2002), all available
on free download from <http://www.clearest.co.uk>. At Liverpool
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viii ACknowledgements
University, he edited the student newspaper Guild and City Gazette
(1973–4) and co-edited the creative arts magazine Sphinx. From 1974
to 1976 he edited Liverpool News, a paper for low-literacy readers. From
1976 to 1978 he edited the Salford Champion news magazine. He is the
editor of Indlish by Jyoti Sanyal (Viva Books, 2006), and consultant
editor to the Adult Learners’ Writing Guide by Ruth Thornton
(Chambers, 2006). In 2013, he received the Christine Mowat Plain
Language Achievement Award ‘for outstanding contribution to plain
language’. He has appeared on BBC1’s Watchdog and ITV’s Martin
Lewis Money Show as well as BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours, Money Box,
and Today. He co-founded the Plain English Campaign in 1979 and
remained a partner there until 1988.
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Starting points
What’s the problem?
More than a century ago, the legendary Cambridge University pro-
fessor Arthur Quiller-Couch encouraged his students to write in a
clear style without inflated language. He liked plain English, he said,
which he summarized as the difference between ‘He was conveyed to
his place of residence in an intoxicated condition’ and ‘He was carried
home drunk’.
Quiller-Couch’s advice remains relevant to today’s academic, busi-
ness, and official writers. During workshops, I often ask them to list
the most desirable features of the reports, papers, and emails they have
to read. Nearly always they say ‘clear’, ‘brief’, and ‘easy to follow’. They
loathe foggy language because it obscures meaning and muddles the
mind, and they dislike badly organized material because it takes time
and energy to disentangle. But, as the workshops show, what’s really
hard is for writers to spot these faults in their own work—sadly, we all
have them—and put them right.
As the book will explore, fog appears in many guises. Long and
tedious examples abound, but here are a few short ones to begin with.
First this highly abstract statement from a 26-page job advert for a
police officer in Northamptonshire:
Our Chief Constable must be able to see beyond the horizons of convention to
make the paradigm shift.
This style of writing is not trivial or accidental. It acts as a subtle invita-
tion to join the jargonaut club at the top of the police force. It’s send-
ing applicants a coded message that a fluent command of fog is
required for the post. It would be a brave person who came for inter-
view and said, ‘If you give me this role, I’ll start by ensuring your job
adverts are clearer than this one.’