The Plain English Guide

By Martin Cutts

Book Overview

Millions of us are professional writers without even being aware of it. Everyday we write countless letters, memos, instructions, legal documents, and reports. And often this writing is criticized for being full of jargon, or obscure, or long-winded, or just not in "plain English." But what is plain English, and how does one write it? The Plain English Guide offers down-to-earth advice and twenty easy-to-follow guidelines covering plain words, sentence length, active and passive verbs, punctuation, planning, and good organization of points. Martin Cutts has probably taught more writers about plain English than anyone else. This book distills his knowledge and experience, and is an essential guide for anyone who writes at work, as well as students in business and professional courses.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198600496
• ISBN13: 9780198600497
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.7" x 0.5" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

A good guide to plain writing.

This book is a joy to read and has much good advice for better writing. The tips are practical, easy-to-understand, and effective. The before-and-after examples are great. The author's tone is enthusiastic; he makes you feel good about writing more plainly. The advice here will benefit lawyers, government employees, business people, and anyone who writes information that others must use.

Excellent advice on writing clearly

This book provides excellent advice to lawyers, businesspeople and other people who need to communicate to others in writing. Although some of the guidelines provided are more typical of British (rather than American) English, and although there are some guidelines with which I disagree, the book provides good advice and great examples. I plan to recommend it to my legal writing classes.