🚀The Clear Writing Lab newsletter is here!

Hi everyone 👋 we're finally getting things moving with our newsletter!

Thoughts from Fraser

Hi everyone, it’s great to finally get going with our newsletter.

I think it will be a great way to casually share our thoughts and ideas about clear writing and plain language with you all. The great thing about newsletters is that you kind people actually signed up to read what we have to say. We can write directly to you without having to compete with the endless scrolling. Social media platforms are crowded marketplaces where writers often make compromises on content and style to get noticed amid all the hustle (LinkedIn selfies anyone?🤷). 

We’d love to hear your thoughts if you think we’re doing this right – or wrong. Is there something you want us to write about, or think we’re missing? Just send a reply to this email and let us know. 

Onto my first thoughts then. The Plain Language Act passed in New Zealand a week or so ago, which is wonderful news. Another legislature has recognised that everyone benefits when we can all understand what our government is doing and what they want us to do. It’s the same concept in the business world: if consumers don’t understand what your product is, they won’t buy it. I hope more governments take notice. Hey, European Union 🇪🇺, this might be a good idea what with the mind-boggling diversity of people using your services!

Thoughts from Jeremy

I focus within the Clear Writing Lab team on the individual writing process. There is so much out there to read about how to write clearly and effectively. A lot of it is very good. But the biggest step you can make in writing clearly is to take ownership of what you write. Be proud of your written work. If you can express yourself clearly and effectively in writing, people will respect your opinion all the more.

Of course there is no golden bullet — one piece of advice that will get you writing well tomorrow. But once you take ownership of your written work, you are inevitably always on the lookout for ways to improve your writing.

I always took a lot of pride in my written work, regardless of the subject matter or the audience. I saw it as a reflection of my professionalism and held myself to high standards because it mattered to me in and of itself. This worked well for me and I can highly recommend it. Once you take the decision to invest in yourself, the rest is much easier.

Thoughts from Henry

It was International Plain Language Day earlier this month (the 13th of October to be precise). For the occasion, I put together a LinkedIn post with some reflections on what plain language and clear writing means to me.

My main thought was that I don’t really think it’s possible for everyone to understand what you’re saying all the time, I do think it’s possible to write clearly all the time. While you can be frank and honest, we all know that how a message is received is crucial. If you respect your audience, your message will be absorbed much more easily. 

Plain language to me is just that: considering your audience. Don’t write for the sake of it, don’t write to tick a box, and definitely don’t write so you can offload via a ranting monologue. Think before you write. Why am I writing? Who is this for? Then think again before you hit send.

What we’ve been up to

We recently ran a really enjoyable workshop for the University of Heidelberg’s translation students. Fraser gave a snappy presentation about the cognitive biases that cause our brains to do weird things when we write. Jeremy entertained the students with anecdotes of his time in the Foreign Office while explaining the practical steps you can take to write clearly in the public sector. Henry shared the findings of his research into clear writing in the European Union and what this means for clear writing practitioners. We held a splendid plenary at the end, it’s always so rewarding to engage with the wonderfully fresh questions you get from students.

Meanwhile we’ve been working as usual on our contracts, helping our clients create watertight written products for their customers. We’re also putting the finishing touches on our document rewriting and redesign service. If you have any complex documents you think could just be that bit more understandable, like contracts or terms of service, we can help you transform them completely, no matter how complex (we just redesigned a seriously dense form from the UK’s heavily-regulated, jargon-laden financial services sector🤯).

What we’re planning

We plan to publish this newsletter at the end of every month. Please do subscribe to it if you haven’t already. And feel free to forward this on to any colleagues or friends you think may like reading about what we do and what we’re thinking.

At the end of November, we will start running a monthly lunch-break webinar🥪. It’s completely free and will only take about 40 minutes (hey, we didn’t want to use up all of your precious lunch-break!). We’ll cover the essentials of clear writing: the concepts, writing as an individual, and editing as a group.

Until next time!

✒The Clear Writing Lab team