Academic papers on plain language
With summaries (of course!)
Academics judge plain-language versions of papers as higher quality. They are more likely to accept them for a conference. They believe those papers have a better chance of being accepted at a good journal.
Published in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
The Secret of Impressive Writing? Keep it plain and Simple
Writers who use long words needlessly and choose complicated font styles are seen as less intelligent than those who stick with basic vocabulary and plain text.
Published in Applied Cognitive Psychology
If it’s hard to read, it’s hard to do
Processing fluency affects effort prediction and motivation.
Published in Psychological Science
Plain language in the US gains momentum: 1940 - 2015
Plain-language practitioners expanded their concerns from how people understand the content — to the usability and accessibility of the content — to whether people trust the content.
Published in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 60(4):343–383
Words count: The empirical relationship between brief writing and summary judgment success
Brief readability is significantly correlated to summary judgment success, but that correlation is stronger in federal than in state courts.
Published in The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute
TED talks on plain language
Deborah Bosley: Demand to Understand: How Plain Language Makes Life Simpler – TEDxCharlotte (in English)
Sandra Fisher Martins: The right to understand – TEDxO’Porto (in Portuguese with English subtitles)
Gergely Vera: Jogod van érteni – TEDxDanubia (in Hungarian with English subtitles)
Shelly Davies: Write like a Reader – TEDxTauranga (in English)
Cristina Carretero González: Hablando Más Claro – TEDxAlcoi (in Spanish)
Alan Siegel: Let’s simplify legal jargon! – TED2010 (in English, with subtitles in 34 languages)