Plain English in ten little words: Difference between revisions

*'''[[By]]''': [[passive]] tense. Write in the active, with energy, and in a way that clearly assigns and accepts responsibility

*'''[[Of]]''': though seemingly a harmless preposition to place one thing in relation to another, “[[of]]” is often also a dead giveaway for [[passive]] constructions — “[[In the event that|in the event ''of'']] harm to the interests ''of'' the client by the broker” rather than “if the broker harms the client’s interests” — and [[Nominalisation|nominalisations]] — “I shall initiate the termination ''of'' the scheme”, rather than “I will terminate the scheme”.

*'''[[And/or]]''': You are a professional writer: write like one. Be confident. Avoid nervous language in the first place, not doubt later on. [[Unless otherwise agreed]]; write [[For the avoidance of doubt|to ''avoid'' doubt in the first place]] (though in my cantankerous opinion [[doubt]] is in any case underrated).

*'''[[Verb]]''': complicated sentence constructions are aided and abetted by boring, colourless verbs: (because such colourless verbs (give, do, be, make, have,  and the worst of all, [[effect]]) require colouring, usually an accompanying [[noun]] that could itself have been a verb, or an [[adverb]], whose definition is “a word you use only where you can’t think of a better [[verb]]”