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Welcome to Plain English Campaign

Since 1979, we have been campaigning against gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information. We have helped many government departments and other official organisations with their documents, reports and publications. We believe that everyone should have access to clear and concise information. Welcome

The campaign officially began after founder Chrissie Maher OBE publicly shredded hundreds of official documents in Parliament Square, London. Entirely independent, the campaign funds itself through its commercial services, which include editing and training. We have worked with thousands of organisations ranging from UK Government departments to World Bowls, helping them make sure their public information is as clear as possible.

We have over 12,000 members in 80 countries and our Crystal Mark is now firmly established as a guarantee that a document is written in plain English. It appears on more than 18,300 documents.

Last Updated on Sunday, 18 October 2009 15:52

Chrissie Maher's 40 years of studying rewarded

It wasn't the first honour to be placed on Chrissie's shoulders in recognition of her lifelong fight for clearer public communications, but the Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) held the most poignant memories for this grandmother in her seventies.

With an illiterate childhood in an inner-city slum of post-war Liverpool, education itself was a distant dream for Chrissie. To find herself standing beneath the great naves of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, with thousands of LJMU graduates also receiving acknowledgement for their years of hard work, was beyond Chrissie's wildest dreams.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 July 2010 10:34 Read more...

The Government's emergency budget speech

There were early promises from Chancellor George Osborne that the budget would be delivered ‘straight’ and ‘plainly’, with nothing ‘buried in the in small print’. However, language still threatened to stray into the world of ‘management speak’, with words and references such as:

‘surplus countries’;
‘the dollar peg’; and
‘redacted’ (which was made fashionable during the revelations around MPs’ expense claims, as a more suitable word than ‘removed’.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 June 2010 13:55 Read more...

Whitewashing the real dirt with the same old smut

A current campaign from Keep Britain Tidy (KBT), called "Get behind keep Britain tidy" follows similar lines to a previous campaign from some years ago. The current campaign uses "saucy seaside postcard humour" to highlight the increasing costs of cleaning up litter.

During that campaign we received some complaints from the public about the messages being inappropriate, particularly for an audience of young people. A number of young people we interviewed thought the campaign was close to the bone and unnecessary but agreed it would raise a few laughs. However, they doubted that the campaign would stop people littering as it just belittled the problem rather than highlighted the serious issues of hygiene and health.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 July 2010 10:27 Read more...

A plainly confusing life of letters and numbers

Algebraic calculations with their mysterious mixture of letters and numbers have been named as number one in the Top 10 of the most confusing things we might come across in our lives. Surprisingly, handling and changing foreign money made the top four, coming in behind ‘understanding the theory of relativity’, and just beating ‘the opposite sex’.

This survey of 3000 holidaymakers by onepoll.com has resulted in the leading foreign exchange specialist Travelex, creating a ‘Plain English guide to exchanging currency’. It is the first guide of this kind to receive accreditation from Plain English Campaign for the clarity of its wording, and its explanations of foreign-exchange jargon.

Last Updated on Friday, 28 May 2010 08:26 Read more...

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