1.1 Study notes | Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading

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Plain English for Editors

Welcome

Welcome to Plain English for Editors

Before you start

How to use the course
The learning
Course tutor
Time management

Resource centre

Plain-English guidelines: additional resources
Bibliography and other resources

Unit 1: What can make a text unclear?

1 WHAT CAN MAKE A TEXT UNCLEAR? – INTRODUCTION
1.1 IF PLAIN ENGLISH IS THE ANSWER, WHAT'S THE QUESTION?
Exercise 1: If plain English is the answer, what's the question?
Exercise 1: How did you get on?
1.1 Study notes
1.2 BACKGROUND AND RESOURCES
Exercise 2: How is plain English relevant to your work?
Exercise 2: How did you get on?

Unit 2: Guidelines and techniques

2 GUIDELINES AND TECHNIQUES: INTRODUCTION
2.1 KEEP SENTENCES TO A MANAGEABLE LENGTH
Exercise 3: Splitting up a long sentence
Exercise 3: How did you get on?
Exercise 4: Using vertical lists
Exercise 4: How did you get on?
Exercise 5: Rewriting the text
Exercise 5: How did you get on?
2.2 EDIT FOR CONCISENESS AND DIRECTNESS
Exercise 6: You and we
Exercise 6: How did you get on?
Exercise 7: Smothered verbs
Exercise 7: How did you get on?
Exercise 8: Noun strings
Exercise 8: How did you get on?
Exercise 9: Positive language
Exercise 9: How did you get on?
Exercise 10: Cut out unnecessary words
Exercise 10: How did you get on?
2.3 CHECK GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION, BUT PUT CLARITY FIRST
Exercise 11: Choosing appropriate grammatical forms
Exercise 11: How did you get on?
Exercise 12: Changing passives to actives
Exercise 12: How did you get on?
Exercise 13: Using commas for greater clarity
Exercise 13: How did you get on?
Exercise 14: Using hyphens for greater clarity
Exercise 14: How did you get on?
2.4 USE WORDS THAT READERS KNOW
Exercise 15: Translate the jargon
Exercise 15: How did you get on?
2.5 CHECK THAT THE LANGUAGE IS INCLUSIVE
Exercise 16: Gender inclusivity
Exercise 16: How did you get on?
Exercise 17: Inclusivity general guidelines
Exercise 17: How did you get on?
2.6 MAKE SURE THE MATERIAL IS ORGANISED AND LAID OUT CLEARLY
Exercise 18: Clear organisation within the text
Exercise 18: How did you get on?
Exercise 19: Giving advice on clear layout
Exercise 19: How did you get on?
Exercise 20: Good layout
Exercise 20: How did you get on?
2.7 FURTHER PLAIN-ENGLISH CONSIDERATIONS AND CHECKLIST
Unit 2 quiz

Unit 3: Test your plain-English editing skills

3 TEST YOUR PLAIN-ENGLISH EDITING SKILLS: INTRODUCTION
Exercise 21: ‘The sources of profitability: who pays for success?’
Exercise 21: How did you get on?

Unit 4: Tools for plain-English editing

4 TOOLS FOR PLAIN-ENGLISH EDITING: INTRODUCTION
4.1 TOOLS IN MICROSOFT WORD
Exercise 22: Using Word tools to spot problems
Exercise 22: How did you get on?
Exercise 23: Using Word tools to demonstrate improvements
Exercise 23: How did you get on?
Exercise 24: Words and phrases to highlight or replace
4.2 PERFECTIT
4.3 OTHER PROGRAMS DESIGNED TO HELP PEOPLE WRITE CLEARLY

Unit 5: Services and challenges

5 SERVICES AND CHALLENGES: INTRODUCTION
5.1 PROVIDING PLAIN-ENGLISH EDITING SERVICES
Exercise 25: Plain-English services business plan
Exercise 25: How did you get on?
5.2: CHALLENGES AND MYTHS
Exercise 26: Challenges of plain-English editing
Exercise 26: How did you get on?

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