Plain English

Plain English focuses on being a flexible and efficient writing style that readers can understand in one reading, that uses only as many words as are necessary, and combines clear concise expression with an effective structure and a good design, to avoid obscurity, inflated vocabulary, and convoluted sentences, which is something that its propenents believe lets the readers concentrate on the message of the text itself as opposed to sentences which are too long, redundant, and so on such as the language written before the 20th century by writers who used a bloated, rambling style with sentences much too long, and with a number of subordinate clauses (as well as too much extra information in parenthesis) following several tangents (often broken up by a semicolon instead of a period); in some other European languages (such as German (a European language (a language of Europe) known for its long sentences and use of too many parenthesis) and a number of other related Germanic languages) a sentence could take up half a page with a number of other tangents that were even more extensive (the philosopher (a lover of philosophy) Hegel often wrote sentences that easily occupied three pages); it is said that the tradition may have come about with classical Latin (the language of the Roman (of Rome, not the Rome at present (the capital of modern-day Italy) but rather of the Roman Empire) people, who spoke Latin), but in the late 19th century, several gifted writers (e.g., Abraham Lincoln (the former president of the United States of America) and likely some others (mainly politicians)) demonstrated that plain English could be elegant when executed (carried out; the other meaning for execution does not apply to this succinct phrase) properly (in good order that is, not proper in the sense of to have manners), and this is likely what gave rise to the movement known as Plain English (Plain English focuses on being a flexible and efficient writing style that readers can understand in one reading, that uses only as many words as are necessary, and combines clear concise expression with an effective structure and a good design, to avoid obscurity, inflated vocabulary, and convoluted sentences, which is something that its propenents believe lets the readers concentrate on the message of the text itself as opposed to sentences which are too long, redundant, and so on such as the language written before the 20th century by writers who used a bloated, rambling style with sentences much too long, and with a number of subordinate clauses (as well as too much extra information in parenthesis) following several tangents (often broken up by a semicolon instead of a period); in some other European languages (such as German (a European language (a language of Europe) known for its long sentences and use of too many parenthesis) and a number of other related Germanic languages) a sentence could take up half a page with a number of other tangents that were even more extensive (the philosopher (a lover of philosophy) Hegel often wrote sentences that easily occupied three pages); it is said that the tradition may have come about with classical Latin (the language of the Roman (of Rome, not the Rome at present (the capital of modern-day Italy) but rather of the Roman Empire), but in the late 19th century, several gifted writers (e.g., Abraham Lincoln (the former president of the United States of America) and likely some others (mainly politicians)) demonstrated that plain English could be elegant when executed (carried out; the other meaning for execution does not apply to this succinct phrase) properly (in good order that is, not proper in the sense of to have manners), and this is likely what gave rise to the movement known as Plain English (please see beginning of article for further clarification on the meaning of Plain English)).
Category:Self-reference
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Category:Language