Plain English

From Plain English Campaign (http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/)

: Plain English is defined as "language that the intended audience can understand and act upon from a single reading".

While this is a technical forum, and technical language is necessary for clarification, in all other cases write using plain English. Write professionally. Write clearly. Writing on Wiki is an opportunity to improve your writing.

This is one of the WikiSocialNorms.

Some extreme cases:

Signatures should normally read like the names of people. Mostly real people. Never organizations or pressure groups. RealNamesPlease.
{[DeleteMe] if this {[[[NewRefactoringInstruction?]]] gets too recursive}} is harder to understand yet contains less signal than a space line.
UgLy page names should be avoided because they are harder to read.
Horizontal lines are preferred over brackets spanning multiple paragraphs, wherever possible. ReFactoringSuggestionForPlainEnglish
The use of wiki word grouping mechanisms as in CamelCase are departures from PlainEnglish. They are used in ways that can either clarify or confuse. Choice of a CamelCase word is an unexact methodology which utilizes creative talent some of us have yet to develop. Therefore when choosing between using a CamelCase word and PlainEnglish, defer more often to PlainEnglish.
Although "<rant>Wiki is going to the dogs</rant>" was originally a good joke, it shouldn't be repeated too many times. Use XML only for XML.
TeenageSlang, although more amusing, intimidates non-teenagers from their cliques. Similarly, Wiki jargon intimidates outsiders. Don't create jargon.
"SeeAlso" is less readable than "See also" or "See". It is also less useful. Create links to topical content, not meta-content. Don't waste the reader's attention by offering a click to nothing.
"lol", "rofl", and emoticons are fine when text is scrolling rapidly in a chat room, but seem trite when they remain for more than thirty seconds. See EmotionOnWiki for tips on how to express emotional reactions when appropriate.

Confusion about PlainEnglish:

The title of this page for example is confusing. Is it a noun or an imperative instruction? Perhaps EschewObfuscation? would be a clearer title? :o) --AndrewCates

Perhaps another confusion some have is that if one expresses something in abstraction, that does not exclude it from being "PlainEnglish". From abstractions one can manufacture multitudes of personalized instances. Some wish to reduce the clutter of stating all possible instances, or limiting the expressions to instances, by abbreviating via abstraction. Abstraction is really a convenient and efficient use of language. -- DonaldNoyes

The US government has a web site, http://www.plainlanguage.gov, that contains guidelines for communicating clearly. However, it doesn't communicate very well - try http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/plainenglishguide.html instead!

What about contributions to Wiki in other languages such as AgileMoedera? Use WikiTranslator?

MeaningfulNames discusses choosing good variable names in software; perhaps that is related to choosing good WikiWords.

See WikiGrammar WikiEditingCustoms http://www.emacswiki.org/cw/PlainTalk GoodStyleSuggestions

CategoryWikiTag