A Conversation for Writing Right with Dmitri: Writing That's Good for Something
Writing for the general public
minorvogonpoet Started conversation Mar 15, 2015
You're right, of course.
When I joined the UK Civil Service, more years ago than I like to say 
, some of my bosses thought they were good writers. They wrote long, Latinate sentences with lots of subordinate clauses.
Those might be fine if you're writing for professors, but what if you're writing for the general public?
Writing for the general public is one of the things government needs to do. But the public is a motley crowd, including people whose first language isn't English and some who can hardly read at all. So you have to make it straightforward - short, everyday words and sentences. There's quite an art to that. These days, of course, when you can put all these documents on the web, you can provide more complex, detailed pieces for those who are interested.
Writing for the general public
Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor Posted Mar 16, 2015
Well put. 
No reason why short, everyday words can't be well put together. But there's an art to writing it - you're right.
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Writing for the general public
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