We prepare draft plain language rewrites of documents:
- of all kinds ― from standard customer-service letters, through manuals and prospectuses, to industry-wide codes of practice, and legislative documents; and
- for all sorts of organisations ― from law firms through financial services organisations to government bodies.
Sometimes our work involves a "light edit". Sometimes we do a complete "rethink, reorganisation, and rework" of the original document.
Here are some of our highlights.
You have the subject matter expertise
We work with your people ― whether your internal subject matter experts or your external advisers.
We recognise:
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that your document is indeed your document (it’s not our document); and
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that your people have the final say ― and rightly so.
We pride ourselves on:
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preserving the meaning of the original document in our draft rewrites;
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making sure that the rewrite is accurate, certain, and precise;
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making it easy for anyone reviewing our work to compare the original with the rewrite ― often we make so many changes that mark-ups are no help at all. So we create ― what we call ― an "audit trail" that shows where the material in any sentence or paragraph can be found in the original. The "audit trail" works well; and
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writing documents that are refreshingly clear.
We strive to help make sure your documents meet the International Plain Language Federation’s definition of plain language ― namely:
"A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information." International Plain Language Federation, definition
Our Managing Director, Christopher Balmford, is on the Federation’s board