Plain English (sometimes referred to more broadly as plain language) is a generic term for communication in English that emphasizes clarity, brevity, and the avoidance of technical language—particularly in relation to official government or business communication.
The goal is to write in a way that is easily understood by the target audience: clear and straightforward, appropriate to their reading skills and knowledge, free of wordiness, cliché and needless jargon. It often involves using native Germanic words instead of those derived from Latin and Greek (see linguistic purism in English).
Famous quotes containing the words plain and/or english:
“Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“But it was alway yet the trick of our English nation, if they
have a good thing, to make it too common.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)