The term “plain style” (also known as “scientific style” or “low style”) is used for speech or writing that is direct, simple, and straightforward. It is often used when addressing a broad audience, particularly for explaining a task or conveying new information.
Benefits of Using Plain Style
The plain style prioritizes readers’ needs by keeping the message brief, clear, and precise. It uses short, jargon-free, action-driven sentences that make the content accessible and easy to grasp. For many reasons, the plain style is popular across a wide range of audiences. It is also useful for reasons such as:
- Getting the author’s message across in the shortest time possible
- Providing access to a larger audience
- Leaving less scope for misunderstanding and confusion
- Making documents more cost-effective and easier to update
In a nutshell, using plain language helps authors save time, money, and resources and also connect closely with their readers.
7 Ways to Achieve Plain Style
1. Ensuring Brevity
Short sentences tend to be less complicated and ambiguous. If the content is task-oriented, the ideal sentence length is about 20 words; for content that is conceptual in nature, authors can go up to 25 words per sentence.
2. Using Active Voice
Unlike passive voice that emphasizes the recipient of the action in a sentence, active voice emphasizes the action and the agent of the action. It is shorter and easily understood by the reader. Compare “He ate lunch” (active voice) to “Lunch was eaten by him” (passive voice.) It is important to remember, however, that passive voice is more appropriately used when the agent of action is unknown or irrelevant.
3. Organizing One’s Thoughts
A lot of writers wander off into a maze of unrelated thoughts when they begin to write. Having an outline of key ideas in place before starting the writing process helps them stay focused and streamlines their writing. An outline works as a roadmap to keep the writing on track.
4. Choosing Words with Care
Readers should be able to take in a piece of writing at a steady pace. In order to achieve this goal, authors need to deliberately choose words that convey the point directly, using simple words and avoiding verbosity. Using sophisticated terms might be unavoidable at times, but in general, simple, easily comprehensible words go a long way toward achieving the plain style.
5. Keeping the Audience in Mind
Good authors invariably write keeping their target readership in mind. Children’s book authors, for example, use fewer and simpler words than those who write scholarly articles for academic journals. But even a piece of writing aimed at adults should use uncomplicated, concise writing as far as possible. New authors are often advised to write at an eighth-grade reading level. At this level, language is advanced yet suitable for a general audience.
6. Using Short Sentences
Since sentences are the building blocks of writing, writers should aim at constructing simple, lucid ones that make sense. Longer sentences can be broken up into two or more shorter ones that can be easily digested by the reader.
7. Editing for Simplicity
While authors practise making conscious language choices as they write, each piece of writing will need to be edited to make sure it adheres to the plain style. Once the first draft is ready, it will need to be trimmed or rewritten, weeding out unnecessary words, run-on sentences, and passive sentence construction.
