Plain English¶

The Plain English tool checks the content of a document against a predefined list of words, phrases, and formatting elements identified as things to avoid. Its primary goal is to ensure that documents are easy to read, understand, and act upon.

To use the Plain English check, you first create a centralised list of terms, phrases, and formatting styles that you wish to avoid. Each entry in the list can include:

• preferred alternatives that can be applied as direct replacement text, and/or

• guidance or instructions outlining what should be considered when manually revising the wording.

In the example shown above, the tool has identified the word “communicate” and suggests replacing it with “talk”, “write”, or “telephone”. The “Consider being more specific” text shown in the box at the bottom right is a free-format extended description that you can add to each entry. This description might direct users to your corporate Style Guide or, in the case of a formatting issue, explain which Word functions to use to correct the problem.

Typical formatting checks that might be set up include:

• ensuring “e.g.” is not formatted as “eg” (or vice versa, or in some other format, depending on your preferred convention)

• ensuring times are formatted as “7:30am” rather than “7:30 am” (or in some other format), or that dots are used instead of colons if that is your standard

• ensuring distances are formatted as “96 km” rather than “96km”

• ensuring number ranges are formatted as “12–18” rather than “12 – 18”, and that an en dash is used instead of a hyphen.