Plain Writing

Various Documents and Projects

What is Plain Writing?

I'm sure many definitions exist. However, I classify plain writing in a few parts/pieces. Firstly, plain writing is targeted to a specific audience. This requires audience analysis before the writing itself even begins. Secondly, plain writing is free from unnecessary words without getting too shallow or short. As Kevin says, "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?" No harm intended, but academic writing is often the direct opposite of plain writing, involving deep run-on sentences and five-syllable words. Thirdly and finally, plain writing is well-organized and structured, conveying the necessary information in a cohesive format.

What Does Plain Writing Look Like?

Below are a few documents and samples of projects I've worked on in the past. These items were chosen because of feedback I've gained indicating their performance or recognition as good examples of plain writing. What does this look like in practice?

One good tool for assessing your writing is something known as a readability score. Many exist (including Flesch-Kincaid), but one of my favorites is known as the Hemingway Editor. Author Ernest Hemingway is often regarded as a very "plain" writer, creating books and works that are approachable by people with limited reading or language expertise.

The Hemingway Editor provides a sample "grade level" between 1 and 12 assessing your overall writing, and highlights sentences in yellow and red. These features help you find areas that are too complex or run on for too long. By identifying these sentences, you can reformat them and improve your overall readability.

Analysis Memo

I created this memo for a digital accessibility class. My professor used it in an anonymized fashion to showcase plain writing to newer students. (I'm one of the only seniors in this class this semester, most are freshman or sophomores).

What makes this memo a good example of plain writing? First and foremost, organization. Each section stays focused on a specific topic. Each section begins with a topic sentence, followed by a few follow-up sentences that provide additional context and information. I created the memo to be as concise and information-dense as possible. (This choice may not be the right choice for an uninformed or more casual audience).

Overall, these design choices, layout, and writing style contribute to creating a document with clear, concise language. Plain writing!

Memo

Digital Accessibility Class

Documentation Writing

In my past internship, I had the pleasure of working with a team of professionals to modernize some existing product documentation and create some new pieces. I collaborated with my mentors to perform a novel content audit to identify any discrepancies and draft revisions to ensure compliance with the style guide.

Although I did not have to perform any audience analysis for this role, I did have previous personas and audience sheets to draw from to help craft the documentation. These product guides are "living documents" and so some of the pieces I worked on or made changes to have likely evolved since my time at Trend Micro. That said, all of my work went through a formal review process and looked and read just like the current documentation.

Previous Internship

Product Documentation