PLAIN ENGLISH CAMPAIGN

The 'Plain English Campaign' is a family business based in the United Kingdom, founded in 1979 by Chrissie Maher. It encourages organisations to use simple English for public information, which can include contracts, terms and conditions and bills. Plain English is defined as "language that the intended audience can understand and act upon from a single reading". The company has its headquarters in New Mills, Derbyshire.
They provide a document certification service to organisations, which allows the organisation to use the widely-recognised ''crystal mark'' in a document to certify that it is written in plain English. They use the word ''gobbledygook'' to refer to the kind of tortuous and confusing English that they are campaigning against, and every year a Golden Bull award is given for the worst example. They also give a Foot in Mouth award for "a baffling quote by a public figure".
Many legal and governmental organisations in the UK now use plain English in their public documents.

Contents

Further reading

External links

Further reading

★ Improvement and Development Agency for local (British) government ''Plain English''

★ Office of Investor Education and Assistance U.S. Securities and Exchange, ''A Plain English Handbook''(pdf) August 1998

★ Plain English Campaign ''FAQs''

★ Scottish Executive ''Plain English''

★ ''Paying the price for crystal balls'', Plain Language Commission, [1]

★ ''Pupils see through the Internet Crystal Mark'', Plain Language Commission, [2]

External links

★ Plain English Campaign