From Prof Joe Kimble's analysis of research _

Pay attention to document design — the typeface, length of line, white space, and so on.

Use short sections, or subdivide longer ones.

Use lots of headings. In public documents, try putting the main headings in the form of a question.

Group related ideas together, and order the parts in a logical sequence.

At the beginning of most documents, have an executive summary (for memos and judicial opinions) or a purpose statement (for legislation) or a table of contents (for manuals and long contracts).

Don't hesitate to use examples, tables, and charts.

Eliminate unnecessary words and details.

Break up long sentences.

Don't put too much information before or between the main subject, verb, and object.

Prefer the active voice.

Put the the central action in verbs, not in abstract nouns.

Use a vertical list — at the end of the sentence — for multiple conditions, consequences, or rules.

Try to address the reader as "you" in public documents.

Give shall the boot; use must instead.

Use familiar words — the ones that are simple and direct and human.

Impact Information: Your One-Stop Source for Plain Language Services:

Bill DuBay's Plain Language Services has a really neat resources/links page

Professional Editorial Standards

"ADOPTED by the association's membership in 1991 and revised in 1999, these Standards list the skills and knowledge needed for editing in English-language media in Canada. The full text of Professional Editorial Standards is reproduced below. Copyright © 1999 by the Editors' Association of Canada/Association canadienne des réviseurs. All rights reserved. "

Accelerated Reader ATOS Summary: "Guiding students to appropriate-level books is now much easier and more accurate than ever before, thanks to the ATOS Readability Formula for Books. ATOS eliminates many of the problems educators have always had with existing readability formulas. ATOS is the first formula to include statistics from actual student book-reading (over 30,000 students, reading almost 1,000,000 books), not just data based on short test passages."