About plain language writing
Plain language principles
Summary: Plain language is more than short sentences—it’s a rigorous, reader?focused approach that links clear thinking to clear writing and treats documents as functional products designed to achieve a specific purpose.
Effective plain language requires testing, usability, and organisational governance so documents are useful, findable, understandable, and usable rather than merely simplified.
Use these principles when you are writing anything.
Australian writing skills at an all time low – what’s the impact?
Summary: Many Australians show declining writing skills traced to long?term education gaps, and this shortfall now affects workplace clarity, review time, and organisational performance. Managers should treat writing as a core capability—audit needs, provide training, and use reviews as development opportunities.
Think in ink
Summary: Writing thoughts down forces fuzzy ideas into concrete shapes, exposing the logical gaps that stay hidden in your head. It shifts writing from a final “recording” task to an active tool for discovering and sharpening what you actually mean to say.
Writing in plain language (plain English)
Summary: Plain language isn’t about “dumbing down”; it’s about stripping away the jargon so your reader gets the point on the first pass. By choosing clarity over “impressive” complexity, you respect your reader’s time and make your message impossible to misunderstand.
Communication does really matter
Summary: Effective communication is the difference between a project that flows and one that fractures under the weight of “I thought you meant…” Ultimately, clarity isn’t just polite—it’s the most efficient way to turn shared ideas into measurable, real-world impact.
Back to basics – ideas for effective writing
Summary: Prioritise a clear purpose and define your audience before you worry about “perfect” grammar or style. By mastering the core foundations of structure and clarity, you help your message survive even the most chaotic or distracted environments.
5 ways to make business writing more powerful
Summary: Get straight to your main point using clear, simple language. Create a logical structure that helps readers follow your ideas easily. Write with both your readers’ needs and your purpose in mind so every word drives them toward the action you want.
User based communication – is it worth the trouble?
Summary: Organising information so it’s easy to find, understand and act on from the reader’s perspective leads to clearer, more effective communication. It’s “worth the trouble” because it improves how people use and react to your writing, helping achieve your communication purpose rather than confusing or overwhelming readers.
Achieving purpose
I’ve told them – isn’t that good enough?
Summary: Simply telling people something isn’t enough—effective communicators take responsibility to write from the reader’s perspective, using clear structure and familiar words so readers can understand and act.
Good writing is rewritten: pause, review, and edit your drafts, and ask reader?focused questions (why read this, what do they need to do) before you start.
Audit vs Evaluation
Summary: An audit checks whether you delivered the product on time and on budget; an evaluation checks whether the product actually achieved its purpose for users. Organisations should suspend assumptions about the right product, explore user needs first, and measure success by outcomes rather than production metrics.
Write for impact
Summary: All communication aims to influence readers—decide the specific impact you want before you write and test whether the piece actually achieves that goal. Tie every message to your organisation’s purpose.
Purposeful communication – beyond mere understanding
Summary: Purposeful communication in business/government isn’t just about ensuring shared understanding — it’s about influencing readers’ thinking, attitudes, or actions to achieve an organisational goal. Before you write, clearly define why you’re communicating and what impact you want the reader to have as a result.
Good communication or effective communication: which do you have?
Summary: Good communication means the receiver’s understanding matches the sender’s intent; effective communication goes further—it gets the receiver to act as the sender wants. To be effective, design messages around the reader’s knowledge, attitude and language, aim to influence behaviour.
The writing process
Five tips for more usable communication products
Summary: Usable communication products get to the point, present one idea at a time, use plain language, tell the complete story, and give clear next steps. Review and edit after a pause. Design documents so readers can find, understand, and act on information.
Getting the timing right
Summary: Timing your communication to match purpose and audience sometimes means introducing ideas gradually—from the known to the unknown—giving people “soak time” to assimilate and ask questions rather than dumping everything at once.
Keep frequency steady but respectful, sequence messages from simple to complex.
Design information with a person in mind
Summary: Design information around real users: talk with and observe them, learn their goals and environment, then create personas to guide decisions so each user can quickly find what they need. Test designs with those people, choose formats they prefer (words, pictures, or both).
5 steps for effective document review
Summary: Test your document with real users and reviewers focused on purpose—don’t just circulate it; explain the audience, ask targeted questions, and judge feedback against your goals. Follow the five steps: develop thick skin; state purpose and audience; involve real users; prepare review questions; make feedback easy.
The forgotten step of document design – User Testing
Summary: Only real users can reveal a document’s problems—test drafts with a handful of people in realistic situations to spot issues peer review misses. Testing is cheap compared with the cost of poor design (confusion, extra calls, missing data).
Draft the content, craft the message
Summary: Draft the content, then craft the message. Subject experts supply the facts, but communication design (structure, format, plain language) translates those facts into something readers can use. Treat writing as two steps—1. draft what to say, 2. involve a communication expert to shape how to say it.
Writing is easy
Summary: Writing isn’t a struggle of talent, but a lack of preparation; once your thinking is finished, the words become a simple mechanical task. By front-loading the logic and structure, you turn the “scary” act of creation into a low-stress exercise in filling in the blanks.
Document structure
What experts can do to communicate better
Summary: Experts often assume readers share their knowledge. They can overload documents with detail, and suppress passion for fear of losing objectivity. And that makes their work hard to follow.
To improve, write for the reader (move from simple to complex), test drafts with representative readers, and pair content expertise with communication skills.
When a logical structure doesn’t work
Summary: Point?first structure usually helps readers. A strictly logical or scientific order can frustrate them when it buries the answer. Sometimes you should answer the reader’s immediate question early – while keeping context so you don’t mislead.
Decide structure by knowing your audience and purpose, write to engage their interests and move them toward your goal.
Why people don’t read everything you write
Summary: Readers are ruthless scanners who will abandon any text that looks like a chore or fails to signal instant relevance. If you don’t design your writing for quick consumption, busy people will prioritise their own time over your word count.
Good design gives information meaning
Summary: Visual structure—like white space and bold headings—acts as a roadmap that directs the reader’s eye toward your most critical points. When design mirrors your logic, it transforms a confusing wall of text into an accessible story that is understood before a single word is read.
Why good readers may not read all of your text
Summary: Even the most skilled readers are “cognitive misers”. They scan for relevance rather than reading every word of a dense block. If your structure doesn’t provide clear visual anchors, readers will quit to save time rather than hunting for your main point.
Policy, procedure and manuals
Re-thinking policy and procedure documents
Summary: Policy and procedure manuals often sit unused—costly to produce and risky when written practice drifts from actual practice, creating dangerous mismatches between managers’ expectations and workers’ actions. Make documents useful, usable, and attractive: focus on relevant content, short lines, consistent styles, verb?first action steps, photos, and check written practice against actual practice.
Developing process documentation
Summary: Process documentation should record how work is actually done. Agree best practice with the people who do the work, and create a stable, measurable platform for improvement. Develop process documents with frontline staff: map current practice, agree standards, verify use, run controlled experiments, and update documents with validated changes.
Not another manual!
Summary: Investigate real practice before writing another manual — manuals often sit unused when official procedures don’t match how work is actually done. Talk with frontline staff and observe tasks to learn why people work the way they do, then choose a manual or a different solution that will actually change behaviour.
Marketing and persuasion
Crafting marketing material
Summary: Write marketing copy that starts with the reader’s need (WIIFM), then Promise — Prove — Picture — Push to show value, evidence, a vivid outcome, and a clear call to act. Always review and edit after a pause—use “soak time” to improve persuasion and clarity.
3 Ps of writing effective marketing material
Summary: Focus your marketing documents on the 3 Ps: a clear Purpose (what step you want the reader to take), a compelling Promise (what value you offer), and concise Proof (just enough evidence to show you can deliver).
Respect your reader: write in plain language, avoid bullying or overloading with detail, and always review and rewrite after a pause to improve clarity and persuasion.
Persuasive communication
Summary: Persuasive messages work when ethos (credibility), logos (logic) and pathos (passion) are in balance—credibility plus sound reasoning and a bit of emotion make arguments believable and effective. Analyse your materials for that balance and leave drafts to “soak” before reviewing and editing to improve clarity and impact.
Capturing your readers’ hearts and minds
Summary: Persuasive communication requires writing both to the heart and the mind — you must evoke emotion to motivate action, then back that feeling up with clear, rational reasons. Understanding your audience’s fears, desires and values lets you inject passion into your writing without being manipulative.
Specialised documents
Communicating law
Summary: Laws and consultation documents must be written so ordinary people can understand how rules affect their lives and businesses; unclear legal language risks accidental non-compliance and erodes trust.
Clear legal communication means explaining impacts, mechanisms, and consequences plainly. Test drafts for usability to ensure the community can act on them.
Writing newsletters
Summary: Newsletters should offer new, reader?focused content that keeps your business top of mind—use useful, interest?driven pieces like product updates, technical tips, case studies, human stories, and special offers.
Aim for a regular cadence (about monthly, but ask your readers), and always revise after a pause—good writing is rewriting.
How to write an executive summary
Summary: An executive summary must serve the reader: lead with the main finding or recommendation, highlight benefits, and “sell” the rest of the report rather than merely describe it. Keep it concise and specific (point?first structure, simple language), match length to report size, and always review after a pause to improve clarity.
Using standard letters
Summary: Standard letters save time and ensure consistency only when they’re written with a clear purpose, reader focus, and explicit context so recipients know what to do. Write point?first for the least?sophisticated reader, use tailored variable content, test drafts with real users, measure outcomes, and always review after a pause.
Writing for websites
Summary: Define your website’s purpose and know what users want—design pages for scanning with clear headings and point?first content so visitors find what they need quickly. Follow established navigation patterns, break information into small, digestible chunks.
The words we use
Readability – necessary but not sufficient
Summary: Readability tools (like Flesch or Hemingway) help spot surface issues and improve clarity, but they’re mechanical and can’t judge structure, relevance, or whether text meets readers’ needs. Effective writing requires point?first structure, purposeful content, and careful revision—use readability scores as one quick check, not the sole standard.
Impress with your thinking, not your language
Summary: Using big words and complex sentences to impress creates a barrier. Obscure writing usually masks unclear thinking and hinders communication.
Write in plain language to show your thinking clearly. Leave drafts to “soak” for a day or two, then review and edit to improve clarity and effectiveness.
Nounification – the art of writing dull text
Summary: Nounification—turning verbs into nouns—makes writing dull, weakens precision, and hides meaning; using verbs forces clearer, more rigorous thinking.
Choose simple words over pompous ones, prefer action verbs, and always review and edit after a short “soak” to improve clarity.
Putting words to work
Summary: Write for the reader: choose simple, precise words, use active verbs, and shape sentences so meaning is immediate and easy to act on.
Rewrite after a pause—leave drafts to “soak”. Then edit for clarity, vigour, and economy of language.
The power of little words
Summary: Short words strip away the fluff to build instant trust and ensure your ideas land with maximum clarity. For example, trading “utilise” for “use,” transforms stiff prose into a punchy, human connection that’s actually readable.
The English language can be tricky
Summary: Have some fun with this article.
The English language is full of words whose meaning or pronunciation shifts with context (e.g., wound/wound, produce/produce), which makes it tricky to use correctly.
Write like a reader
Organisations we recommend
