Oxford Guide to Plain English

by Martin Cutts

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 expert advice to help writers of all abilities improve their written English. With 30 chapters, each centred around a practical guideline, its coverage is extensive, including lessons on vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, layout, proofreading, and organization. There are also hundreds of real examples to show how it's done, with handy 'before' and 'after' versions. All this is presented in a straightforward and engaging way.

This new edition has been fully revised, reorganized, and updated to make its content even more accessible. There are new chapters discussing customer-service writing and common blunders in the workplace, while other sections have been amended to update examples and provide easier routes through the book. The chapter on sexism, in particular, has been heavily expanded to advise on the use of inclusive language in general. A new appendix has also been added, summarising the history of plain English from Chaucer to the present day.

Genres: Reference, Writing, Nonfiction, Language, Linguistics, Education, Self Help

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really useful in understanding how to write in plain English. With concrete indications and plenty of examples to learn from.
Only downside: Gives plant of examples of different types of writing, such as emails, legal communications, reports and leaflets. Would have been Greta to also have some examples or tips around instructional design or writing training material.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource.

[Vanya De Lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a very informative, funny, and witty read. I enjoyed Cutts' use of humor and jokes to aid comprehension, and to make this a fun book to read.

[rabbitprincess · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever been bamboozled by a legal contract or attempted to wade through obtusely written government leaflets, you will know the value of Plain English. Writing plainly is easier said than done, however. Fortunately, Martin Cutts provides an excellent guide with this book. Over 25 chapters he touches on such topics as the importance of layout, planning your documents in advance, using good grammar, maintaining consistency in usage/style/punctuation, and adapting texts to different audiences (e.g. the Web, people with low literacy). It also includes a list of pompous-sounding words and their plain-language alternatives, examples of good design and layout, and "before" and "after" paragraphs, many of which were evaluated by focus groups.

Because this is an Oxford University Press publication, some of the usage and style conventions are more appropriate for a UK audience, but overall this is a great resource for anyone writing or editing in English.

[Eugenio Quintana · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, this book isn't a style guide. It's a series of recommendations on how to write clear and concise documents, from emails to user manuals. Almost three-quaters of the advices is for any western language and sometimes it's just common sense. The book is full of good tips, but it's not magic; you have to practice to master writting skills. Finally, it's a relief that an expert says writing it's far more difficult than editing, so editors always take into consideration that you're doing the easy part.

[Liquan Gu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read some chapters of the book. One of my favourite is about "using vigorous verbs, and untying noun strings". In this chapter, the author suggest avoiding using noun to express an action. Use the verbs as we can, as it's less abstract and save some unnecessary words. For example,
* People don't apply for a travel pass, they make a application
* Speakers don't inform the public, they five information
* Officials don't urgently consider a request, they give it urgent consideration

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primer.

[Laura]

An extremely well-written and useful good that I imagine I'll return to as a reference! Amazingly, it even got a chuckle out of me on occasion.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource!

[Ema N · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you need a guide to plain language (or plain English), this is the book you need. Clearly organized and fun to read, it's one I keep at hand. Highly recommended!

[Adnan Soysal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very to the point practical book to address most common problems in writing.
Such as
- avoiding foggy language, using plain words
- planning , composing, organizing your text.
- concise, and clear sentences , paragraphs
- punctuation

It is also giving advice about writings on websites.

One thing I found unfortunate about the book is that fonts and sizes of example sentences / paragraphs.
They are similar to main text, as a result, they are mixed up.
It just causes confusion, dragging the read, breaking the will to proceed.