82,891
edits
How make text plain English: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Step 1: look for telltale signs. They are not what you’d think. Search for these words: *by — indicates a likely passive construction *or — indicates a lau...") |
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (One intermediate revision by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
Step 1: look for telltale signs. They are not what you’d think. Search for these words: | 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 | *[[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 | *[[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".) | *[[of]] — indicates a [[nominalisation]] (a compound verb - "effect the execution of" rather than "execute".) | ||
*-[[ing]] — indicates a participle, and a compound verb | *-[[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]] | |||
. | |||