Plain English: The Remaining Problems

Abstract

Those who must write clear, readable sentences now have access to about 90% of everything they need to know to write those sentences. That knowledge can be encapsulated in three principles: 1) Express crucial actions as verbs; 2) locate the participants of those actions in the subjects of the verbs; 3) arrange information in those sentences so that older, more familiar precedes newer, less familiar. But if some scholarly knowledge is available, other needed information is not. We know relatively little about the nature of form. More importantly, we know relatively little about how to teach the knowledge we do have. And most importantly, we know less yet about how to train those responsible for managing the prose of others. There is, though, one crucial piece of certain knowledge that takes precedent over all the rest: before we can train those in an organization how to write plain English, the highest levels of management must make it clear by their active participation in the program that clear communication is their highest priority.