Plain English home page

If you improved the clarity of your emails, web pages, letters, reports, leaflets and forms you could save thousands of pounds this year. If those documents aren't as clear as they could be, you could be losing money and customers – year after year. It is as simple as that.

How much time do your people spend communicating with each other, with customers, with prospective customers? How many messages do they produce in a day, a week, a year? If those messages aren't clear, think how much time they could be wasting. Does your organisation suffer from any of these problems:

people spending more time in meetings trying to decide what reports are saying than discussing their recommendations?
instructions and policy documents that staff ignore because they don't understand them?
'explanatory' documents that lead to even more puzzled phone calls from customers?
customer documents that even your staff struggle to understand?
important letters that customers simply don't reply to?
forms that people always fill in incorrectly, or don't fill in at all?

These problems used to plague most organisations, but over the last two decades a 'culture of clarity' has been gaining ground all over the English-speaking world. In the United Kingdom, government departments, banks, insurance companies, local councils and many other organisations have realised that clear communication is actually a good idea. Instead of writing to impress or confuse, they are now writing to inform and explain. They are using plain English to do this.

We're proud to have been part of this change. Since 1996 we've been helping all kinds of organisations to use plain English and reap the rewards through cost savings and improved customer relations. However big or small your organisation, we have the resources and skills to help you.

If you are already using plain English, our corporate membership and document accreditation schemes will help you get the recognition you deserve.
If you've still some way to go, our editing and training services will help you get there.

If you think you might need our help, why not contact us today? After all, your competitors may be using plain English already.

© The Word Centre

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Martyn Saville @martynsaville
Want to submit a #PPI claim to Lloyds (or any other provider)? Here's a free tool from @WhichCampaigns: http://www.which.co.uk/campaigns/personal-finance/the-ppi-campaign/claim-back/#.Ubc7yQGUETU.twitter …
Retweeted by Dave Fox
BPEConstruction Team @bpeconstruction
I see they've stopped saying "this train is formed of 5 carriages" in favour of "has". At last! #plainenglish
Retweeted by Dave Fox
@DaveWordcentre
Does this #waitrose voucher entitle you to £15 off 'four summer shops'? No, you can only use it once. #misleading pic.twitter.com/h51VFIfXZ7
@DaveWordcentre
Some Aldi 'produced in Scotland' meat products are from animals reared elsewhere in EU and South America #misleading
http://bit.ly/17uCKjk
@BobBartonEng
"Populate" = to fill a form in. #plainenglish please.
Retweeted by Dave Fox
@jaynefox
Handbook of word & grammar patterns in British vs. American English http://ow.ly/lGgB9 via @GoldsmithTrans #xl8
Retweeted by Dave Fox
@DaveWordcentre
Consumer minister calls in representatives of top 10 UK grocery chains to explain misleading unit pricing policies http://bit.ly/116W8tS
@DaveWordcentre
My trusty laserjet HP2200 has finally given up the ghost :-( Had it about 15 years! Was a great workhorse printer for churning out b/w copy.
@tweeniell
Yet another spam txt today about the payday loan I don't have! I'm with @WhichAction #callingtime on nuisance texts pic.twitter.com/2YKIbauzlHpic.twitter.com/2YKIbauzlH
Retweeted by Dave Fox
@DaveWordcentre Regulators say there's been a big rise in complaints about online 'surveys' ripping people off. http://bbc.in/YMwtdv
@DaveWordcentre
Survey: only 2 in every 5 people read #patientinformation leaflets in medication packets. http://itv.co/13mJxEy What? No magnifying glass?
@DaveWordcentre
Ten #buzzwords that have run their course. But let's face it, they were always awful! http://bit.ly/19kLVyZ #jargon #plainenglish
@hapsci "Common problem in sci comm is that academics pander to their peers, rather than to their audience." @profbriancox #scicomm13
Retweeted by Dave Fox
@DaveWordcentre
Sensible statement on NHS performance information -- 'too much information is as bad as too little'. Refreshing! http://bit.ly/11yJnQe
@PeterSpringett
Do they mean roadworks? #jargon #solutions pic.twitter.com/0jzTG5Pvqj
Retweeted by Dave Fox
@DaveWordcentre
ASA bans Kerry Katona loan ad as irresponsible, encouraging people already in difficulties to opt for payday loan. http://bit.ly/13z3Jpt
@DaveWordcentre
Which? research: last month 5 million UK households needed to use credit or savings just to pay for food. http://bit.ly/13S2zoy
@DaveWordcentre
Do you avoid eating GM foods? Most supermarkets are happy for suppliers to rear animals/poultry on #GM feeds http://bit.ly/17bOmmj
@DaveWordcentre
One in five shoppers has bought an 'own label' product by mistake because labeling imitates a more established brand http://bit.ly/157OKWK
@DaveWordcentre
This NHS report looks worth a prize for #jargon overload. And see the NHS manager's quote near the end of the article http://bit.ly/17ox7Bg
@DaveWordcentre
Always fast-forward the adverts? How film and TV producers get us to watch advertising anyway
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22066153 …
@liamkellyldn
This is a new one: "We've been so busy we've not been able to move forward this" #jargon
Retweeted by Dave Fox
@DaveWordcentre
Fed up of seeing 'mojo' everywhere: used to sell an ill-defined idea/product to improve work-related skill/performance in some way #buzzword
@DaveWordcentre
No more rip-off surcharges when buying tickets etc by credit card. Now shouldn't be more than 2% of transaction cost http://bit.ly/13XHlto
@DaveWordcentre
SSE fined £10.5m by Ofgem for mis-selling: the largest-ever penalty imposed on an energy supplier in the UK http://bit.ly/XWVKhA
@DaveWordcentre
People are so afraid of going over data allowance that they pick a mobile contract providing way more than they need, http://bbc.in/13FDMYJ
@DaveWordcentre
New words have always aroused strong feelings, and there's nothing new about the way some people hate text-speak etc http://bbc.in/10tU1kb
@DaveWordcentre
Virgin drop advert for 'unlimited' broadband, after ASA find that heavy users could have download speeds cut by 50% http://bit.ly/11L1cKU
@DaveWordcentre
NAO warning of 'them and us' culture being created by government making access to services increasingly online only http://bbc.in/WXc3xt
@DaveWordcentre
Which? is declaring war on nuisance phone calls and texts http://bit.ly/Zr4LPb 70% of us have had a nuisance call in the last 3 months.
Veronique Rhys Evans @vezre
What's with all this 'adverse weather conditions' nonsense. What's wrong with plain old 'bad weather'? #plainenglish
Retweeted by Dave Fox
@DaveWordcentre
Just had junk email entitled 'Miss Sold Mortgages'. So what's new about female mortgage brokers? Ah no, they just can't spell or use hyphens
@DaveWordcentre
Shoppers lost out on an estimated £1.2bn in the last year by not returning goods they weren't happy with.http://bit.ly/16v0yB5
@DaveWordcentre
Minister criticises recorded train announcements. http://bit.ly/Yog51n
@DaveWordcentre
Food companies must cut the salt content of their food http://bit.ly/YWIj3b. When they do, we'll realise that processed food is tasteless.
@DaveWordcentre
#plainEnglishtip Planning & proofreading are never a waste of time. It will cost you much more in time if your msg is muddled or inaccurate.
Susan McKeon @sukesu
@honeyinmyveins Oh my lord! Why do people/organisations think long words & convoluted sentences make them seem more intelligent? They don't!
Retweeted by Dave Fox @DaveWordcentre
Good to see the OFT cracking down on payday lenders. http://bit.ly/YC3VSh @DaveWordcentre
Blog: Modern advertising slogans and plain English don’t really go together http://www.plainenglish-uk.blogspot.co.uk/ @Judith_Husband
Fastest way to report #scam calls http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ maybe if we all report can help protect vulnerable folk. Alternatively call 101
@WhichAction
EE has announced a price rise for Orange and T-Mobile customers on fixed contracts - shouldn't Fixed Mean Fixed?http://whi.ch/YO4tFI
@DaveWordcentre
We've just arranged another 'Writing plain English' course in London on 18 September. For more info please see http://www.wordcentre.co.uk/page9.htm
@DaveWordcentre
Travel insurance has the highest claims rejection rate & lowest satisfaction rate of all insurance products: Which? http://bit.ly/XA9DES
@DaveWordcentre
Good BBC guide to tweets and the law -- covers the risks associated with libel, defamation, contempt of court etc http://bbc.in/WnDiOm
@DaveWordcentre
Our online plain English phrase book has 100s of alternatives for complex/bureaucratic words & phrases -- try it http://www.wordcentre.co.uk/on-line_phrasebook.htm
@DaveWordcentre
Someone tell me this is a wind-up. The most jargon-ridden article imaginable http://bit.ly/13aXOZI
@DaveWordcentre #plainEnglishtip Use everyday, familiar words whenever you can. Don’t use a complicated word where a simple one would do just as well.

What plain English can do for your organisation