Oxford Guide to Plain English, 4th Edition

Plain English is the art of writing clearly, concisely, and in a way that precisely communicates your message to your intended audience. This book offers 25 practical guidelines to help improve your vocabulary, style, grammar, and layout in order to achieve clear writing. It gives expert advice on all aspects of the writing process: from avoiding jargon and legalese, to organizing written information in print and online. It also includes hundreds of real examples, including ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions to show exactly how its done. All this is presented in an authoritative and engaging way.

Completely revised and updated, this essential reference work is now even more useful: the word lists have been expanded; a new list of cliched and troublesome words to avoid have been added; and examples of real-life stories have been replaced with more recent ones. An improved design gives the book a fresh feel.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Writing short sentences and clear paragraphs
Chapter 2 Preferring plain words
Chapter 3 Writing tight
Chapter 4 Favouring active-voice verbs
Chapter 5 Using vigorous verbs, and untying noun strings
Chapter 6 Using vertical lists
Chapter 7 Converting negative to positive
Chapter 8 Cross-references, cross readers
Chapter 9 Using good punctuation
Chapter 10 Pitching your writing at the right level
Chapter 11 Six writing myths explored and exploded
Chapter 12 Clearly non-sexist
Chapter 13 Conquering grammarphobia
Chapter 14 Sound starts and excellent endings
Chapter 15 Planning well
Chapter 16 Using reader-centred structure
Chapter 17 Using alternatives to words, words, words
Chapter 18 Management of colleagues’ writing
Chapter 19 Good practice with email
Chapter 20 Writing better instructions
Chapter 21 Clarity for the Web
Chapter 22 Lucid legal language
Chapter 23 Writing low-literacy plain English
Chapter 24 Basics of clear layout
Chapter 25 Keeping errors in Czech: its time to Proof read
Appendix: commonest words