🔤 Plain Language: Writing Clear, Simple Sentences

Helping readers understand every sentence—on the first read

Aug 10, 2025

This post is part of my Plain Language Writing Guide.
If you missed the earlier posts—an introduction to this series, tips on focusing on your readers and purpose, organizing your documents, writing effective paragraphs, and a list of helpful resources.

Bridging the Gap Between Confusion and Clarity

The simple, declarative sentence is the easiest to understand: Someone (or something) does (or is) something. Sentences that stray from that simple structure may be harder to read.

Be logical, literal, and precise in your use of language.

Especially for readers who may have limited English proficiency, pay close attention to the literal meaning of each sentence you write and the words in them. When revising a sentence for those readers, make sure your changes still sound natural to native English speakers. If your revision doesn’t improve the sentence for all readers, revise it another way—or keep the original.

Keep them short

Readers can only take in so much new information at once. Short, simple sentences are less likely than long, compound, and complex sentences to include ambiguities that reduce readability and hinder translation.

Make the average sentence length in your document 20 words. Readers can understand some longer sentences (up to 30 words) if they are well written and use familiar terms.

Try to limit most sentences to one idea. Break long sentences with more than one idea into two or more sentences.

Instead of:
The parameters of your responsibility are included in the job description you received on your initial day of work at the association.

Use:
Your job description lists your responsibilities. You got your job description on the first day you worked here.

Also, link your ideas by correctly using words such as that, which, who, and whom:

Use that for essential clauses that define or restrict the meaning of the noun:
The book that I borrowed was excellent.
Use which for nonessential clauses that add extra information and are set off by commas:
The book, which I borrowed from the library, was excellent.
Use who for people and whom when referring to the object of a verb or preposition:
The woman who called you is waiting.
The man to whom you spoke is my neighbor.

The following section, Choosing Clear Words, provides advice on shortening verbose sentences by cutting out unnecessary, useless words; redundant ideas, words, and phrases; and weak, abstract, and wordy noun phrases.

Use active voice verbs—unless there's a strong reason to use passive

In active sentences, the person or thing doing the action is usually named or described at the start. Putting the "doer” in front of its verb will usually ensure the verb is in the active voice.

The active is more direct. It helps drive home the message. Active verbs typically suggest that someone is doing something: collapse, confuse, jump. The passive can obscure the message.

Active voice is usually more concise than passive voice. Sentences that are passive instead of active usually contain forms of the verb to be: am, are, is, was, were, be, been, being. And those verbs usually come before verbs that end in -ed or -en: carried, taken.

Instead of:
The fundraising campaign was approved by the Executive Committee.

Use:
The Executive Committee approved the fundraising campaign.

Instead of:
Complaints are taken seriously by the Parks Department.

Use:
The Parks Department takes complaints seriously.

Use the passive voice when:

You don't know who is doing the action.
The doer isn’t important to the meaning.
You want to emphasize the action or result, not the actor.

Avoid switching between active and passive voice within a sentence.

Avoid pronoun confusion—and include everyone

When you use a pronoun, make sure readers can tell what it refers to. Words like it, its, they, and them can be confusing if the noun they replace isn’t clear. To help all readers—especially people with limited English proficiency—consider repeating the noun instead of replacing it with vague pronouns like she, they, this, or these.

Avoid using this, that, these, and those on their own as pronouns. Instead, use them as adjectives before a noun:

Instead of:
This is unclear.
Use:
This sentence is unclear.

Instead of:
Please send them to us.
Use:
Please mail those identification forms to the Licensing Office at …

Instead of:
Emily researched and wrote the speech, which everyone thought was impressive.
Use:
Everyone was impressed with the speech that Emily researched and wrote.

Inclusive language: Using they for an individual
Use they, them, and their as a gender-neutral singular pronoun when the gender is unknown or not immediately clear from context, or for a person who uses those pronouns.

Example:
Each participant should bring their own lunch.

When used this way, they takes a plural verb:
Jordan said they are ready to begin.

Still, when clarity is more important than brevity, repeating the person’s name or title may be better.

Avoid double negatives when clarity matters.

Phrases like don’t want nothing or can’t hardly can be confusing or misunderstood, especially by readers unfamiliar with the speaker’s dialect or tone.

Instead of:
I don’t want nothing from you.
Use:
I don’t want anything from you.

Keeping your writing clear helps all readers get the message the first time.

Use correct punctuation consistently

Punctuation should help make your writing easier to read and understand. Think of punctuation marks as street signs: They help readers know when to pause, stop, slow down, or pay attention. When used consistently and correctly, they help your readers follow your meaning.

Punctuation marks show how words and strings of words are related, separated, and emphasized. Their main purpose is to help the reader understand the structure of the sentences you write.

Consistent, accurate use of punctuation marks is essential. Excessive use of commas, parentheses, semicolons, and dashes may signal long or complicated sentences.

The period is the most effective punctuation mark in clear, concise writing. It should be the most common mark on the page. Use periods to break up long or complex sentences into two or more readable ones. Periods also help avoid run-on sentences and confusion.

Inserting optional commas after introductory phrases and before conjunctions (and, but, or) in a series of things can help, especially for readers with limited English proficiency and language translators. Use commas to separate parts of a sentence clearly and avoid inserting them just to suggest a pause. Too many commas can signal that a sentence is too long or unclear.

Hyphens are not needed after most prefixes, but they can reduce confusion when used in similar or unfamiliar words: She recovered her health. She re-covered the torn seat. Use of hyphens in compound words can aid reader understanding: He is a small-business man. He is a foreign-car dealer.

Avoid using quotation marks to highlight words or phrases; save them for enclosing quotations or short titles. To highlight terms, use boldfacing, italics, color, font size, or font type.

Use boldface and italics sparingly and with purpose.
Bold text helps highlight key points or headings. Italics work well for tone, nuance, or subtle emphasis. Use both styles consistently—but don’t overuse them. If everything is emphasized, nothing stands out. Some style guides also recommend italics for the titles of books, magazines, newspapers, and certain other documents.

Other plain language tips for punctuation:

Parentheses: Use sparingly for side comments or explanations. If the information is important, consider integrating it into the sentence.
Semicolons: Use to separate closely related sentences or list items with commas. Plain language usually favors shorter, separate sentences without semicolons.
Dashes: Dashes add emphasis or interruption but can break up flow if overused. Use them only when truly helpful.

For more punctuation advice, consult trusted style guides such as The Associated Press Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, or The Gregg Reference Manual. These resources provide detailed guidance on punctuation, grammar, and word usage to support clarity and consistency.

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