There’s a growing understating of the importance of using Plain English in both eLearning and general written communication. The basic principle of Plain English is to presenting information in a way that makes it easier for people to read and understand. Plain English helps those that may have difficulty understanding written communications for different reasons. But it makes it easier for all of us to process and retain what we read.
There are five things to focus on when using Plain English:
- Addressing your audience
- Structuring your content
- Writing simply and clearly
- Being thoughtful about design
- Making sure your content is readable
Addressing your audience
Before you begin to write, you must think about who you are writing for. Who are your audience? Consider things like:
- Their literacy level,
- Their level of education,
- Their familiarity with the topic,
- The language they speak.
Think about what information they need. Your writing should present them with this information in a way that is clear and easy to read.
Structuring your content
Here are some tips for structuring your content to make it easier to understand.
- Organise your content well and guide your audience through it. Begin with a clear introduction and limit paragraphs to one clear point.
- Use headings and subheadings throughout your writing. This will make it easier for people to skim through what you have written and pick out information quickly.
- Use transitional phrases to show you’re moving on to a new point
- Use lists and bullet points where it’s appropriate.
Writing simply and clearly
Simple writing benefits all of us. It makes it easier to read material quickly and efficiently. It also benefits anyone who may struggle with language or literacy. Here are some tips for writing simply.
Structure your sentences well: Keep sentences short where possible. Put the subject of your sentence near the beginning. Focus on using strong, concrete verbs, not abstract ones.
Be direct: Say what you need to say and keep it to the point. Always keep in mind what information your reader needs.
Avoid complexity: In some cases, you will need to use technical terms. But if you have a choice between a complex word and a simple word, chose the simple one.
Be consistent: If you use a certain term to describe something, be consistent and keep using that same term.
Being thoughtful in your design
The way you design your material should make it easy to read and appealing to look at. Over-designing something can make it harder to easily pick out information.
- Use a clean font such as Arial, Verdana and Tahoma in 12 point.
- Left-align your text. Justifying your text can result in gaps between words which make sentences harder to read.
- Use colour to enhance contrast and visual appeal. Avoid colours with a low contrast, such as purple on a dark blue background.
- Use visual aids such as tables, images, charts if they help make the content easier to understand
Checking your content is readable
- Ask a colleague or someone you trust to check your work
- Use tools such as spell checkers or online grammar tools to check the content in terms of readability and fluency.
- Check the content against a checklist or style guide to ensure it’s consistent with your organisation’s writing conventions.
Now that you know the basics of how to write in Plain English, you can use this information to make your eLearning more accessible and useful for your learners. Learn more about this topic with The Learning Rooms Plain English online course.
