OUR PLAIN ENGLISH APPROACH |
|
Our publications translate complex standards
into Plain English. They are for anyone who is tired of struggling
with sentences that are awkward and muddled, and a writing style that
is technocratic and legalistic. They are for anyone who is tired of
poor quality writing. If you’ve studied technical standards and you’re not used to the way they are written, you probably found them hard to understand. This is not your fault. You found them hard to understand because the sentences usually contain too much information. They are usually too long, too dense, and too complex. In order to make standards easier to understand, we take these complex sentences apart and re-assemble them using plain English. In the course of doing so, we try to comply with the following rules:
The above list points to our particular definition of quality. For us, good quality technical writing is clear, plain, easy to understand, and always empathizes with the reader. And a good quality translation preserves the original meaning and covers every aspect of the original material. In the context of our publications (our products), this is our special definition of quality. These are the special characteristics (qualities) that define the quality of our products. |
| SOME OF OUR FAVORITE QUOTES ABOUT PLAIN ENGLISH |
|
William Zinsser. On Writing Well, An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction, Third Edition, page 154. "Executives and managers at every level are prisoners of the notion that a simple style reflects a simple mind. Actually a simple style is the result of hard work and hard thinking; a muddled style reflects a muddled thinker or a person too dumb or too lazy to organize his thoughts". |
|
Albert Einstein
"If you can't explain something simply, you don't
understand it well. |
|
Joseph Kimble. “Answering the Critics
of Plain Language.” “It is much harder to simplify than to
complicate. Anybody can take the sludge from books, thicken it with a few more
provisions, and leave it at that. Only the best minds and best writers can cut
through. In short, writing simply and directly only looks easy. It takes skill
and work and fair time to compose . . .” |
|
Plain Language Association International (PLAIN) "Plain language, also called plain English, is language that everyone in your audience can easily understand. Clear writing in plain language saves time, money, and lives. You need plain language whether you're preparing a legal brief, writing a procedure, designing a brochure, running a business, publishing a newsletter, managing a department, maintaining a Web site, or training workers." |
| How to Order | Detailed Site Map | Alphabetical Index | |
| Our Products | Our Prices | Our Guarantee | Our Customers |
This web page was updated on May 22, 2007
On the Web since May 25, 1997
| CONTACT INFORMATION |
| Praxiom Research Group Limited 9619 - 100A Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K 0V7, Canada Phone: (780)461-4514 Fax: (780)463-6034 info@praxiom.com |
Copyright © 1997 - 2007 by Praxiom Research Group Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Legal
Restrictions on the Use of this Page
Thank you
for visiting this page. You are, of course, welcome to view our
material as often as you wish, free of charge. And as long as you keep
intact
all copyright notices, you are also welcome to print or make one copy of
this
page for your own personal, noncommercial, home use. But, you
are not
legally authorized to print or produce additional copies, or to copy and
paste
any of our material onto another web site. If you would like to
purchase our
material, please contact our Sales Desk. Our staff would be very pleased to
take your order or to answer any questions you might have.