Plain language standards — like the US Plain Writing Act, the UK GOV.UK style guide, and EU clear-communication rules — require public-facing copy to be readable by an ordinary person on the first pass. This scorer flags the four habits that most often break that promise: overlong sentences, passive voice, hidden verbs, and bureaucratic jargon. It gives you a numeric score plus a heatmap so you know exactly what to rewrite.
Who plain language requirements apply to
- UK public sector: the GOV.UK Content Design Guide requires plain English and provides specific forbidden words — “facilitate” instead of “help”, “utilise” instead of “use”, and dozens more.
- US federal agencies: the Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires that all public-facing government documents be clear, concise, and well-organised.
- Healthcare and insurance: patient-facing materials, explanation of benefits letters, and insurance policies increasingly carry regulatory expectations of plain-language compliance.
- Legal and financial services: FCA guidance in the UK and SEC guidance in the US both encourage plain-language disclosure documents.
Even outside regulated contexts, plain language reduces support requests, increases comprehension, and builds trust.
How it works
The analysis is a set of fast, transparent heuristics that all run on your device:
- Sentence length — text is split on sentence-ending punctuation and any sentence over 25 words is flagged. Long sentences are the single biggest driver of low readability.
- Passive voice — a form of to be followed within two words by a past participle is counted as passive. Active voice (
the team decided) is clearer than passive (a decision was made by the team). - Nominalisations — words ending in
-tion,-ment,-ance,-ence,-ity, or-nessare counted as hidden verbs you could turn back into actions. - Jargon — a built-in list of bureaucratic words and phrases (
utilise,pursuant,in order to,prior to, and more) is matched and counted. - Flesch Reading Ease — the classic formula gives an overall readability band.
Flesch Reading Ease score bands
The Flesch formula produces a score from 0 (hardest) to 100 (easiest):
| Score | Reading level |
|---|---|
| 90–100 | Very easy — primary school |
| 70–90 | Easy — plain English standard |
| 60–70 | Standard — fairly plain |
| 50–60 | Fairly difficult — formal writing |
| 30–50 | Difficult — professional, technical |
| 0–30 | Very difficult — academic, legal |
Most plain-language standards target a score above 60 for public-facing copy, with the GOV.UK style guide aiming for material that is clear to someone with a reading age of 9. For a useful reference: a newspaper article typically scores around 65–70; an academic journal abstract often falls below 30.
Practical rewriting patterns
Each type of flag has a simple fix:
Long sentences
Split at natural clause boundaries. A 40-word sentence usually becomes two 20-word sentences. Look for conjunctions like “which”, “that”, “and”, “but”, “because”, and “however” as split points.
Passive voice
Identify who did the action and move them to the front. A decision was made
→ The committee decided. If the actor is genuinely unknown, passive is
acceptable — “The package was left at the door” is fine if you do not know who
left it.
Nominalisations
Turn noun phrases back into verbs: make a decision about → decide;
conduct an investigation into → investigate; provide assistance to → help.
Jargon
Replace with the plain equivalent: utilise → use; commence → start;
terminate → end; in order to → to; prior to → before.
Tips and notes
- Aim for an average sentence length under 20 words and a Flesch score above 60 for general public copy.
- Passive voice is not always wrong — treat the flags as prompts, not commands.
- Replacing one nominalisation often shortens a sentence twice over:
make a decision aboutbecomesdecide— one word instead of five. - Because the checks are heuristic, expect a few false positives (a legitimate
-edadjective read as passive, for example). Use your judgement on each flag — the score is a guide, not a grade.