Storytelling in Plain Language

Summary

Storytelling in Plain Language isn’t just about “writing simple stories”—it’s a way of organizing and structuring written thought that saves time and money. Plain Language contributes to excellent customer service and makes life easier for employees. Documents written in Plain Language are easier to understand and require fewer resources to explain and revise. People make fewer errors responding to letters written in Plain Language, and compliance is faster and more accurate, especially when written communication is our primary medium of interaction.

In this interactive workshop, participants will develop a better understanding about how to use a variety of Plain Language tools, and how to communicate technical information in ways that strengthen internal and external communications.

Learning Outcomes

• Using Plain Language to communicate more clearly and persuasively

• What Plain Language is—and what it is not

• How and why to omit needless words

• Targeting readers and enabling them to understand what you’re writing

• Placing modifiers correctly

• Applying practical techniques to create Plain Language

• Keeping one idea to a sentence

• Understanding document design to hold readers’ attention and improve clarity

• Customized “Before/After” examples from real-life documents

• How and why to write in the active voice

• Using a positive tone

• How and why to write clear, short, and direct sentences