View source for How make text plain English

Step 1: look for telltale signs. They are not what you’d think. 

*Average sentence length: Divide the number of words by the number of full stops. (It’s not a fully reliable indicator — lawyers like to punctuate lists with semi-colons — but it's a useful rule of thumb).
*Number of words per comnma: Divide the words by the number of commas. This will indicatge 
Search for these words:
*[[by]] — indicates a likely [[passive]] construction
*[[or]] — indicates a [[laundry list]] to be shortened, or  — ohhhhhh tyhe irony — some kind of [[option]] that you could de-clutter
*[[of]] — indicates a [[nominalisation]] (a compound verb - "effect the execution of" rather than "execute".)
*-[[ing]] — indicates a participle, and a compound verb
*-ly — indicates an adverb (a verb modifier) - look for a better verb

[[Dead words]]: delete dead phrases and any verbiage they carry with them: “whether or not”, “including”, “including but not limited to”, “for the avoidance of doubt”; “to the extent permitted by law”, “, or any other... ” “any and all” “of whatever nature”, “express or implied” “written or oral”,“whatever”, “however”, “howsoever”

[[Redundancies]]: Clear out any redundancies: “any and all” is “any”; “right, power or remedy” is “right”

Active, energetic writing: Use direct, active verbs:
*“the Receiving Party must ensure that the Confidential Information is protected and treated with the same degree of care that would apply to a Receiving Party’s own confidential information” becomes “''the Receiving Party must treat the Confidential Information with the same care as it treats its own confidential information''”

Get rid of over-descriptions
- In almost all cases, you don't need to ''define'' “[[Affiliate|Affiliates]]” or, really, even ''mention'' them in a [[contract]]

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