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Plain English
When we edit documents we aim to get them to reach a standard of clarity set by the world-wide movement for Plain Language.
Often, clarity of writing depends upon the clarity of the thinking behind it and the author of a document may sometimes need an editor as a method of piloting a text to answer the question; does it say what I want it to say?
The British writer George Orwell, who hated gobbledygook and official euphemisms, set out some guidelines (below) for writers. Follow the guidelines and you might get to the point of writing exactly what you mean. The guidelines are extremely useful to us as editors of formal writing and we adhere to the principles that underpin them.
Click here for a Plain Language style guide for non-native speakers writing in formal English. (Word Document)
Click here for a style guide in Winhelp
George Orwell's guidelines
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are
used to seeing in print.
Never us a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if
you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Politics and the English Language (1946)