science

Plain English Campaign

Plain English Campaign is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Plain English Campaign rather than just read about it. In short: The Plain English Campaign (PEC) is a commercial editing and training firm based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1979 by Chrissie Maher, the company is concerned with plain English language advocacy, working to persuade organisations in the UK and abroad to communicate with the public in plain language.

Key takeaways

Plain English Campaign belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Plain English Campaign to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Plain English Campaign from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Plain English Campaign (PEC) is a commercial editing and training firm based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1979 by Chrissie Maher, the company is concerned with plain English language advocacy, working to persuade organisations in the UK and abroad to communicate with the public in plain language. Maher was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1994 for her services to plain communication. In 1990, PEC created the Crystal Mark, its seal of approval. This is a symbol printed on documents that it considers to be as clear as possible for the intended audience. The symbol appears on over 20,000 documents worldwide. They also give out the annual Foot in Mouth Award for "a baffling comment by a public figure" and the Golden Bull Award for "the worst examples of written tripe". Notable winners of the Foot in Mouth Award include Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Gordon Brown, Richard Gere, and Donald Rumsfeld. PEC has worked all over the world for companies and organisations including British Gas, British Telecom, Irish Life, Telefónica O2 and the World Bowls association. It has also worked with the majority of UK council and government departments. Many UK forms and bills carry the Crystal Mark, including the British passport application form. PEC is often described in the media as a pressure group, and regularly makes public comments about language-related news stories, particularly jargon. In 2008 it criticised a consultation document sent to residents living near Heathrow Airport. The year before, it mocked signs put up by police in Hertfordshire that warned the public not to commit crime. In 2006 its supporters voted Bill Shankly the author of the greatest footballing quotation of all time: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." A 2004 survey revealed that "At the end of the day" was considered the most irritating cliché. Famous supporters of PEC include Margaret Thatcher and broadcaster John Humphrys. PEC has been criticised by writer Oliver Kamm, who wrote: "The joke – not that it's funny – is that a body ostensibly concerned with clarity of language is both incompetent in its own use of English and heedless of the task it sets itself." A different point of view was given by Tom McArthur, editor of The Oxford Companion to the English Language, who said: "In all the history of the language, there has never been such a powerful grassroots movement to influence it as Plain English Campaign." In 2011 PEC criticised the Met Office for using the phrase "probabilities of precipitation" instead of "rain is likely". The Met Office responded by explaining that precipitation does not mean only rain. A Met Office spokesman said: "Precipitation covers a wide range of stuff falling from the sky including rain, sleet, snow, hail, drizzle, and even cats and dogs – but sums it up in just one word."

See also Plain English Simple English Wikipedia Simplified English Foot in Mouth Award Anglish List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English

References

External links Plain English Campaign

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Plain English Campaign

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Plain English Campaign claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Plain English Campaign before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Plain English Campaign ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Plain English Campaign

In research: Plain English Campaign appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Plain English Campaign in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Plain English Campaign is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics English language, English usage controversies, Language activists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Plain English Campaign outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Plain English Campaign in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Plain English Campaign means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Plain English Campaign out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Plain English Campaign in simple terms?

Why does Plain English Campaign matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Plain English Campaign?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Plain English Campaign.