PDF · plainlanguage.gov
GuideFederal Plain Language Guidelines
The reference manual behind most plain-language style rules: how to structure a document for the reader, choose words, cut hedging, and write instructions people can follow.
Published August 19, 2025
- Audience
- Communications Program staff Leadership
- Access
- Freely available
What do these mean?
- Communications
- Public information and outreach teams.
- Program staff
- The people running the service day to day.
- Leadership
- Directors and deputies making the call.
- Freely available
- Open on the public web, no sign-in.
What it is
A 118-page manual organised the way you would actually use it: think about your audience, organise the document, write the sentences, then test it. Each rule comes with a before-and-after example, which is what makes it usable in a review rather than only in training.
Who it is for
Anyone who writes something a member of the public has to act on — a notice, a form, a letter, a web page. It is also the reference to cite in a review comment, which saves the argument about whether a rewrite is a matter of taste.
How to use it
Do not read it front to back. The three sections worth knowing well are the one on document structure, the one on addressing the reader directly, and the one on writing instructions as steps. Those three cover most of what goes wrong.
Notes from the library
It is old and it is American federal, so the legal citations and some examples will not match your context. The writing advice has not aged at all. Pair it with your own organisation’s style guide rather than replacing one with the other.
About
- Year published
- 2011
- Contact email
- Fictional contact — demo only
Who it is for
- Topics
- plain language
- public communication
- writing
- forms and notices
- Language
- English