What is plain English?

Plain English is a style of writing and layout that the intended reader can understand after a single reading. It will help you clarify what you’re trying to say and, as a result, help your reader get your message exactly as you intended. Presenting information in plain English includes using suitable words, adopting a direct style, avoiding unnecessary jargon and designing your written information to make it easier to follow.

Should I attend the online training?

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you want to ensure you are communicating as clearly and effectively as possible?
• Are you sometimes frustrated answering the same questions because the information to customers is not clear enough?
• Do you find it difficult to develop clear reports, policies, promotional, training or web materials?
• Do you want to get quality training in how best to communicate, provided by leaders in plain English editing and training?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then this online training is for you.

What do I need to do before I take part?

Before the session, you will be asked to send in sample documents from your organisation, so we can use them for exercises and activities during the day.

What is unique about this online training?

After you complete the training, we will agree a set exercise of one to two pages of text from your documents/web text with you.  You will apply the plain English guidelines you learned in the session to this text and NALA will review and provide detailed feedback in an email. This gives you the chance to put the training into practice and get immediate expert feedback.

Cost

€130 per person (€110 per person for NALA members, community and voluntary organisations)

Register below and we will send you a link for the training.

Recent testimonials

“NALA’s Plain English training was incredibly useful. The training provided excellent tips and tools about how to make our communications more accessible. The training also helped me to explain to colleagues why Plain English is so important. I have shared the Plain English guide with a number of people in my company. My team has also started using Plain English in our recent communications with the general public.”

Ciara Flanagan, Development Officer, Pobal

“NALA one-day open plain English training was excellent. I learnt so much and it is one of the best training days that I have attended in a long time…..focused, informative, balanced, excellent.”

Cherie Tyner, Parents Plus

From recent Online Training

“Sean made it easy to participate. He welcomed contributions and engaged with everyone. You could see that he was reading the comments. There was a good atmosphere, despite the fact that it was an online course. It was also nice to be able to discuss material we had contributed prior to the workshop.”

Angela D’Arcy, National Learning Network, Sligo

“I really enjoyed the training. Particularly the practical exercises, I am a big fan of learn by doing. But it was also well balanced with the theory too”

An Bord Pleanála