A plain English handbook : how to create clear SEC disclosure documents.

by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

This handbook shows how you can use well-established techniques for writing in plain English to create clearer and more informative disclosure documents. We are publishing this handbook only for your general information. Of course, when drafting a document for filing with the SEC, you must make sure it meets all legal requirements.

Genres: Writing

About the author

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Reviews

[Li Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best and simplest book on plain English writing. This is for everyone who communicates.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Handbook is free to download (PDF file). It does what the title says. It introduces the principles of plain English writing and document design. While the examples come from SEC disclosure documents, the principles apply to almost any type of institutional or academic writing. When you write something, your readers should understand it on the first reading. The book shows you how to give them a fighting chance.

The book follows plain English principles and is therefore easy and enjoyable to read. If you've read something you had to re-read several times before it made sense, you weren't reading plain English. When you understand the principles of plain English, you'll be able to tell exactly why bad writing is hard to read, and how to fix it. You'll also want to send 99% of bureaucrats, academics, etc. to plain English re-education camps, and keep them there until they can explain clearly why you should release them.

Perhaps the only weakness in the book is its brevity. It zips through the plain English principles and then applies them to some horrifying "before" examples. You can plainly see that the "after" versions are far easier to read, but you might need more study and practice to repair such sentences on your own. To fix an unclear sentence from someone else, first you must understand what it means - and if the sentence is unclear, that can be hard to do. It's easier to fix your own unclear sentences, because you know what you were trying to say.

Most people who write as a secondary aspect of their jobs probably don't think much about grammar and sentence structure. Instead they absorb a style from the type of writing they read. If they read a lot of legalese, bureaucratese, or academic-ese, that's what they learn to duplicate. They may need some time to grasp the grammatical aspects of what they are writing, so they can consciously break bad habits. A book such as Clear Technical Writing goes into the elements in more depth, with multiple exercises for each one. For example, there you get a whole chapter on the passive voice, with exercise sentences that you practice converting into the active voice. For more books on plain language principles, see my shelf.

Plain English: it's not just a good idea, it's the law.