Ananova - Clare Short's resignation letter praised by Plain English Campaign

Cheryl Stephens on Plain Language -- Plain Language Association International
good stuff - pkain and authoritative

Say What You Mean Report #19, 30 books of quotations and proverbs

Say What You Mean on the Web | Make yourself understood

ED284273 1987-00-00 The Plain English Movement. ERIC Digest.

"The inflated style is itself a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics'. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer."

George Orwell from "Politics and the English Language", about four pages from the end.

Common Talk
Sarah Margetts et al - breakaway e-group

Garbl's Guide to Concise Writing

Quotes about brevity in writing

Below the Beltway (washingtonpost.com)
about easy speak

HOW TO WRITE
By Flesch himself

Bretton Woods Project
World Bank speak

stylewriter
You can buy a programme to edit your text for all kinds of non plain writing problems. Even if you don't buy the programme it is useful to read about what it checks for!

Readability
A brief overview with some handy lists

Joe Kimble on Plain Language--The Plain Language Association International

Garbl's Writing Center
Gary B. Larson's portal to an editorial style manual, annotated directory of writing Web sites, concise writing guide, personalized advice and writing forum.
Neat.

A.Word.A.Day Home Page : vocabulary, wordpower, words, language, english, dictionary, lexicon, logophile, wordsmith

Guardian style guide
Comes in three versions. The downloads are quite large.

Egg-bound
Egg-bound by Mark Adler first published in Clarity 41 (April 1998)


Before:

If the rent hereby reserved or any part thereof shall be in arrear and unpaid for twenty-one days after becoming due and payable (whether formally demanded or not) or if there shall be any breach of any covenants or agreements on the part of the Lessee herein contained then and in any such case it shall be lawful for the Lessor at any time thereafter to re-enter upon the demised premises or any part thereof in the name of the whole and immediately thereupon this demise shall absolutely cease and determine but without prejudice to any right of action or remedy of the Lessor in respect of any antecedent breach of any covenant or agreement on the part of the Lessee herein contained


After:

The landlord may end the term by entering the property if:
(A) any rent is 21 days late (even if not formally demanded); or
(B) the tenant breaks any other obligation.

Articles and information on plain language

Rapport Communications - Design - Interactive Print Design
Sub-title - interactive design - bah humbug.
A fascinating tour round the theory of layout and design and its links to plain language.