Chapter 2
DEVELOPING A GOOD STYLE
Chapter overview
This chapter looks closely at the first key element of Plain English: writing clear, readable
sentences. Most students will probably be surprised at how different Plain English is from typical
academic writing.
Brief outline of the chapter
I. Use common words. This section encourages students to be comfortable with common
words such as begin instead of commence. The goal isn’t to avoid words such as
commence. The goal is to stop avoiding common words such as begin.
II. Use contractions. Students should use contractions such as here’s, I’ll, and didn’t: We speak
with them. Most professionals use them. Virtually all bestselling books use them. Annual
reports from top corporations use them.
III. Use pronouns. Writers routinely avoiding pronouns such as I, we, and you are almost
certainly churning out bureaucratese.
IV. Use active voice. Active voice is a key to writing clearly: passive sentences don’t have to
leave out key information (the actor), but in practice, they do. Thus, readers often have less
information in passive sentences than in active ones and must struggle to figure out what
they mean.
V. Use short sentences. The suggestion isn’t to write a bunch of short sentences. The
suggestion is not to write sentences that are too long.
VI. Use the proper tone. Plain English has the same full range of tones that speaking has.
Writers using Plain English have nuances of tone available to them that writers of overly
formal, bureaucratic writing do not.
VII. Use grammar checkers. The worst thing students can do is follow all the advice of
grammar checkers. Yet grammar checkers do have four useful items: length of words,
length of sentences, percent of passive verbs, and a readability index.
VIII. Exercises
General comments
I think of this chapter as showing my students how professionals really write and how businesses
(not all, but perhaps most, by now) want their people to write. This course, in other words, is not
a repeat of the freshman comp course too many of them have had. Most students are relieved to
find that out.
Here are some specific tips:
• I specifically urge my students to use pronouns and contractions. When they do, most
other problems of breaking away from the old style of writing take care of themselves.
• I spend time teaching how to identify passive voice. Students need lots of help
understanding what seems to me to be a pretty simple concept. But words like
“participle” do seem to raise their anxiety. Actually, students don’t need to understand
participles or much other grammar to learn to identify passive voice. Once you point out
several passives, most students internalize the pattern.
• I encourage students to use a grammar checker for the four areas I point out in the book:
sentence length, word choice, passives, and readability index. These are useful numbers
that give students objective feedback on how well they’re doing.
Additional exercise
Here’s another exercise you might want to use to help your students turn bad bureaucratese into
straightforward Plain English:
Dear Congressman :
Thank you for your recent inquiry requesting assistance for your constituent, Ms. Diane Short, in
Our office does not stock copies of standardization documents for distribution. Documents are
As a courtesy, my staff contacted your office and spoke to Mr. Malone. We advised him that we
Your interest in this matter is appreciated. If our office can further assist you, please contact Mr.
Sincerely,
Here’s a possible revision using Plain English (point out to your students that lots more has
changed than just the writing style; layout and organization are much better, too!):
Dear Congressman :
Notes on the exercises
Exercise A
1. We’ve decided the new accounting procedures will take effect after September 1.
Exercise B
1. A team of experts wrote the contract.
2. We wrote the contract. (Note: Or replace “We” with another actor.)
Exercise C
Exercise D (rewriting a memo)
The book that converted me to Plain English years ago, Rudolf Flesch on Business
Exercises E, F, G (bringing in outside writing)
Virtually all editorials use Plain English. Virtually all bestsellers use Plain English. Most letters
Exercise H (describing a job)
I really like exercise J and have used it for years and years with success. If your students don’t
•Lack of headings. When I’m going over drafts of this exercise, rarely do any have
headings. Even though I haven’t gotten to layout yet (and don’t want to go into much
•Lack of examples. Almost without exception, the students’ drafts need examples. I try to
Exercise I (online exercise)
I’ve used this exercise countless times and consider it the most crucial part of the course. For it