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Plain language exercise ten takeaways

Last updated on September 10, 2020

Suggested solutions: 

  1. She will order supplies for the party. (Simplify and activate the verb!)
  2. She consulted with the director. (Remove redundant and unnecessary phrases)
  3. The training lets you increase your CMS Lite skills. (Simplify sentence form, remove wordy phrases)
  4. The topic you wrote about interests me. (Activate the verb, use a conversational tone)
  5. We have no current estimate of how many boxes of records the school possesses. (Reduce prepositions) 
  6. All content writers for this website must know correct web style. (Find hidden verbs, activate the verb, reduce prepositions)
  7. The politician responded vehemently to the allegations. (Replace prepositional phrase with adverb)
  8. She was disturbed by the movie's violent images. (Use the possessive)
  9. Their attempt to reduce paperwork was unsuccessful. (Reveal the hidden verb)
  10. The best outcome would be a change in policy. (Remove unnecessary wordy phrases)
  11. Don't leave Tom's waffle iron unattended! Its fuse is broken so it could catch fire. (Use contractions, use possessives, split long sentences)

Continue to Plain Language: Evaluation

The following can be signs of passivity - watch for these markers of opportunities to simplify your writing:

  • Verbs and nouns ending in "ing"
  • Prepositions (is, to, since, than, on, as, at, by, for, after)
  • Verbs that use a form of "to be" followed by another verb. Examples:
    • has been painted
    • is going to order
    • is being recorded
    • were regarded