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King County Plain Language Writing Guide

How to write clearly to meet the needs of your readers

Plain language (or plain English) is an approach to writing that concentrates on the needs of your readers. This clear writing approach is ideal for public sector employees who write to and for King County taxpayers, ratepayers and other clients and customers. Plain language principles can help you write clearly and concisely.

Plain language matches the needs of the reader with your needs as a writer, leading to effective, efficient communication. It is effective because readers can understand your message. It is efficient because readers can understand your message the first time they read it.

That reader focus--combined with logical organization, clear writing and inviting appearance--is key to creating readable, informative documents for King County. Those county documents can range from memos and letters to reports and newsletters to brochures and Web pages.

Follow the topics below to learn how to improve your writing skills by using plain language techniques:

• Focusing on Your Reader and Purpose
• Organizing Your Ideas
• Using Appropriate Words
• Writing Clear, Simple Sentences
• Writing Clear, Effective Paragraphs
• Creating an Enticing Design
• Testing for Clarity
• 
  
• Other Plain Language Resources: online and print resources provided by the Washington state and U.S. governments, other state and national governments, and other organizations.
• King County Web Page Specifications (internal link, DOC, 188KB). They refer to plain language and require that Web file content use the clearest, simplest language possible.
• "Wash. state sees results from 'plain talk' initiative"--USA Today, Dec. 12, 2006

For easy access to this plain-language guide, add it to Favorites in Internet Explorer and Bookmarks (Ctrl+D) in Mozilla Firefox and Netscape.

This writing guide as a Word document, March 16, 2007 (DOC, 182KB).

For more information about plain language and clear writing, check out these Other Plain Language Resources or contact Gary Larson at gary.larson@kingcounty.gov.

Introduction | Reader/Purpose | Organization | Words | Sentences | Paragraphs | Design | Testing
Other Plain Language Resources

Back to King County Editorial Style Manual
To King County Guide to Concise Writing

Updated: June 22, 2007

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