Empower Your Writing - Write in Plain English.
"Clear, not clever” helped me write better in my second language.
Two people fight in me when I write: one who must write and the other who is afraid to write in English as it’s not my first language.
I was deadly afraid I sounded stupid and seemed stupid.
It took me ages to stop being afraid of writing in English and even more to realise that knowing another language is my superpower, not my shame.
The main “trick” that helped me overcome an imposter syndrome:
People want to read my writing despite all my mistakes and odd sentences. And I need to thank my plain English writing for it.
After almost four years in Australia, I started writing publicly in English on Substack and Medium in January 2022. I tried to sound exactly the same as in Serbian, my mother language.
But most of my articles flopped.
I overcomplicated and found myself in a web of nasty grammar rules and odd sentence structures. It took me ages to write a single article.
Don’t be clever; be clear.
This principle for creating quality marketing materials helped me ditch academic, overcomplicated writing (residue from my Marketing Master) and start writing simple, like I talk with my mates.
Little did I know there was a Plain English campaign founded by Chrissie Maher OBE, a clarity champion and writer. The Plain English website is full of excellent resources for writers like me who are trying to prove they know English and are inclined to overcomplicate the use of the language.
I’m sharing with you six short principles to make your writing in English plain, simple and easy to digest:
1. Keep Your Sentences Short
Be punchy.
Cut the fluff.
Use simple, short words.
Try to convert one idea in one sentence.
The average clear sentence has up to 15 to 20 words.
Everything can be said in fewer words; you just haven’t tried to cut them off.
2. Avoid passive words
Although passive sentences sometimes can’t be avoided, try to have up to 90% active verbs in your writing. Active sentences are direct and strong and use fewer words than passive ones.
Passive sentences are often used in official documents or academic writing. There are just a few cases when using passive is a better solution:
When you want to avoid sounding hostile
When you avoid blaming someone
When you don’t know who did the action in the verb or it is not important who did.
3. Don’t be Afraid of Using We and You
Many businesses talk about themselves in the third person and avoid calling readers or customers “you”. That makes them too formal and dull.
Especially nowadays, we live in a world where everyone expects brands to have personality.
Why don’t you give them a personal pronoun, then :)
Also, no matter how big your audience is, your reader is always one and only, and you can use “you”.
4. Use Familiar Words
I worked as a journalist for 12 years and always admired doctors who could present the most complex things in simple words. That was quite a good indicator of their actual expertise.
I believe it’s similar to writing - real master writers have a gift for describing most complex things with simple words.
Also, try to use your reader's point of view - language. This is important for writing in marketing as it helps you write to your ideal customers using their language.
Hemingway wrote all his novels at a fifth-grade reading level!
5. Format for Readability
Most of the time, we skim, not read.
So use this as a checklist for the readability of your writing:
Break down your text with headlines and sub-headlines
Keep paragraphs short - up to four rows, or break them down.
Use bulleted lists
Use white space and indentation
Highlight keywords and essential phrases
Include an overview or summary for longer articles (or how I call it TL’DR)
Plain English List of Tools
Helpful list to make your writing better.
Grammarly has the option to check readability.
Readable.com - Offers readability scores based on various algorithms, including the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.
Quillbot - rewriting tool that has summariser and flow improver
AI assistants - Chat GPT, Gemini, or similar are good at rewording text that is too complex into plain English.
Example:
It's time that we became uber-efficient with our deconstructed management contingencies.
With Gemini, this sentence becomes:
It's time to simplify our complex management plans.
Do you have some good resources to add to this list?
But if you, after all, prefer writing so no one understands you, I have a solution for you:
Some other resources about writing:
Writing in plain language is so refreshing! It’s all about clarity and connection—cutting through the noise to make a real impact. Loved this read! Thanks for sharing.