Plain language: the same facts, fewer words

What plain language is

A text is in plain language when its readers find what they need, understand it on the first reading, and can use it. That is the whole definition. It says nothing about dumbing down. A plain-language tax letter has exactly the same facts as the formal one. It just puts them where you can see them.

Easy read goes one step further: shorter sentences, one idea per line, hard words explained on the spot, and often a picture per point. In Sweden it has a name, lättläst, and public bodies are expected to offer it.

The rules that do most of the work

• Short sentences. One idea each. If a sentence has a comma and an "and", it is probably two.
• The most important thing first. What happened, what you must do, by when.
• Everyday words. "Pay" rather than "remit". "Before" rather than "prior to".
• Explain the word you cannot avoid, in brackets, right where it appears.
• Say who does what. "We will send the decision" rather than "the decision will be sent".
• Dates and amounts written out exactly, once, where the action is.
• Headings that say what the section is for, not what it is called.

None of this is hard to write. It is hard to remember to write, which is why most official text is still not written this way.

Why the formal version is so hard

Formal text is written to be defensible, not to be read. Every exception is folded into the sentence that it qualifies. The verb comes last. The subject is hidden in a passive. The reader has to unpack all of that before they get to the point, and the unpacking is the work that makes a text feel heavy.

Your right to ask for it

Public bodies in Sweden are required by law to write in a way that is cared for, simple and understandable. In the UK the government has a plain-English standard for everything it publishes. In both places you can ask for a plain-language or easy-read version of a letter or a decision, and you can ask for it to be explained by phone.

Keep the request simple. "Can you explain this decision in plain words" is enough. You do not have to say why.

Getting the plain version yourself

Most text you meet will never come in a plain version. A colleague's policy document, the terms of a subscription, a contractor's quote. For those, Zimplfy's Explain does the rewriting. Select the text in any app, press ⌃⌥R (Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows) and choose Explain.

The result follows the rules above: short sentences, one idea each, hard words explained in brackets, every fact kept, in the same language as the original. It appears next to the original, not instead of it, so you can check that nothing was lost. Ask for "even simpler" in the box under the result and it goes one step further.

Writing plainly yourself

The same rules apply to what you send. Write the draft the way you would say it. Then put the action first, cut the sentence in two where it bends, and swap the long word for the short one. Reading it aloud finds what is left.

Zimplfy's Rewrite has a style for this: choose Concise or Friendly and the draft comes back shorter and clearer with your meaning intact. Or skip typing altogether, hold the dictate shortcut and say it. Spoken sentences are naturally plain.

Where Zimplfy fits

Zimplfy works on selected text in every app on Mac and Windows, and in the browser at /read. Explain gives the plain version, Summarize gives the to-do list, Read aloud lets you hear either, and Rewrite tidies your own text. The free plan gives 30 text actions a day without an account.

Try Explain in your browser