Books, Articles, Journals
There are many books, articles, and journals that provide different perspectives on the value of plain language in areas as diverse as science, government regulation, and law. This page provides links to interesting sources that offer useful writing tips and also answer the critics of plain language.
External links are shown with a "
".
Signs
of Intelligible Life
describes efforts to encourage scientists to write in
plain language.
Sandeep Dave provides advice to legal writers in Plain
Language in Law.
Clarity
is a worldwide group of lawyers and interested lay people.
Its aim is the use of good, clear language by the legal
profession. They publish a journal that is free to members.
Articles have included Plain Language in the Political
Arena, Plain Language Research Projects,
and Practical Drafting. Contact kimblej@cooley.edu
for membership information. You can find many of their
past articles on the Clarity website.
Martin Cutts has battled gobbledygook in Great Britain
for 25 years. Here's an article
about that battle.
The Scribes Journal
of Legal Writing has published many important
articles on plain language. You can find the table of
contents for each volume at the Scribes website.
There are many important books about plain language. Most of them are not available online, but they are well-worth acquiring. Here's a list of our favorites.
