Cutts

Oxford guide to plain english, Fourth edition, Cutts M., 2013.

   Plain English embraces honesty as well as clarity, or should do. Essential information should not lie or tell half-truths, especially when it comes from those who are socially or fi nancially dominant. For example, insurance and pension companies should not hide their charges beneath a mass of detail. A health leafl et should not withhold facts that political, religious, or minority groups might fi nd unpalatable. Products claiming green credentials should not use duplicitous labels like ‘recyclable’, since almost anything can be recycled, or ‘harvested from sustainable forests’, since all forests are sustainable and what matt ers is whether they are indeed sustained, and how.

Oxford guide to plain english, Fourth edition, Cutts M., 2013.

   My thanks go to those who have given help and advice on parts of this edition. Chapter 23 draws heavily on the practical knowledge of Janet Pringle, a Canadian expert on the needs of low-literacy readers, and she also commented in detail on the draft of that chapter. My colleague Sarah Carr commented on chapter ю and conducted several readability tests for me. Christina Gleeson, another Plain Language Commission associate, spent many hours extracting word-frequency data from the sources. I remain grateful to Monica Sowash, who ran the focus-group interviews for the original edition in 1995. Throughout, my wife Ingrid has given constant help and support. The book is dedicated to my parents, Ivor and Joan Cutts, for bringing me up with an interest in words and for their many years of encouragement.