In a college class I recently taught— Introduction to Professional Writing and Presentations— one of the topics we covered was plain language. We discussed what plain language is all about and its purpose. I’ve also discussed this matter with my creative writing class at Rockway Senior’s Centre in our city.

What is plain language? Writing in ordinary words so that our audience understands our message. Writing without jargon, without wordiness, and using too many words to say something that can be said in fewer. Writing so our message is accessible to as many people as possible.

A member of the Editors’ Association of Canada posted a link on our  listserv this week to Writing. Matters blog.  E-Write’s  Leslie O’Flahavan and Marilynne Rudick wrote their December 30th blog post on Plain Language. How I wish I had that to show my students.

The  European Commission offers its guide book to plain language in all 23 languages represented by the commission. In that December post is a link to a video showing a Brussels-based choir known as the Hot Air Vocal Ensemble. The choir  sings about the merits of plain language.  Although I pointed out the Plain Language website,  my students would also have enjoyed seeing this video. Maybe some of them will check out my blog and see it afterall.

Listen to the ensemble here.