Overview
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Learn to write in a way that is easily understood by your target audience: clear and straightforward, appropriate to their reading level, and free of wordiness, clichés, and jargon.
Syllabus
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Introduction
- Welcome
- What you should know
- Exercise files
- What is plain English?
- Problems from writing that is not clear
- Government's impact on plain English
- Catch mistakes by reading aloud
- Use
- How to avoid wordiness
- Simplify sentence structure
- Use strong verbs
- Delete extra words from your writing
- Use multisyllabic words sparingly
- Avoid corporate jargon in writing
- Avoid technobabble and legalese
- Eliminate vague words and expressions
- Remove gibberish and nonsensical writing
- Find the right voice
- Incorporate easy-to-read design features
- Edit flow and content of writing
- Importance of organization structure
- Write with a conversational style
- How to choose meaningful words
- Review basics of writing in plain English
