4. Benefits of using plain language in technical writing
Based on the previous chapters, let’s try to trim down the definition. Plain language, aimed at technical communication, needs to follow certain rules. It must provide communication that leaves no room for error through clear wording, easy-to-follow structure, and visual design. The aim of all that is to ensure that the target audience can easily:
- Find what they need,
- understand what they find, and
- use this information.
Why is it important to use plain language techniques in technical writing? Now, let’s summarize the knowledge from Chapter 3. In the world of technical communication, where expert, technical, or complex facts are predominant, the need for clear and concise information is critical. For areas such as business, legal, or government, the stakes are high. For example, posting straightforward financial information can result in informed consumer decision-making; at the same time, a poor announcement on the website may cause serious confusion, resulting in stock exchange chaos. This is no different, however, for technical documentation and manuals. While a word processor online help might pose considerably little danger, a bike or, for that matter, a wheelchair maintenance error might be critical.
Whether they are drafting software instructions, designing a website, or announcing an upcoming tax change, skilled technical communicators understand that information is meaningless unless the reader can easily and properly comprehend it.
Below are the key benefits of applying plain language principles in technical communication, particularly in technical writing. They can be put in several main areas of interest.
Usability and content comprehension
Using plain language in these areas ensures that information is easy to understand, navigate, and process, reducing cognitive effort and improving user experience.
Plain language improves comprehension. It simplifies concepts and ideas, making complex, specialized information more accessible to everyone, even if they do not have detailed knowledge of the topic. This is especially beneficial for users with cognitive impairments. If the readers have learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders, using plain language and conveying the message in a clear and structured way helps them understand information more effectively and remember it more easily.
Plain language increases usability. Content written in plain language is easier to navigate, understand, and use. This leads to an overall better user experience. Structural and semantic elements such as clear headings, straightforward instructions, and even things like easy-to-understand navigation let users find the information they need without confusion or frustration.
It makes the knowledge more approachable. Plain language reduces the cognitive load on users by presenting information in a digestible format. Putting the previous – utterly terrible – sentence clearly: using simple language makes the information clear and understandable even for users with lesser knowledge or otherwise less advanced. This is particularly helpful when users access information under stressful conditions, time pressure, or other inconveniences, especially if they are inexperienced.
Accessibility and inclusivity
Here, plain language makes content available to a wider audience, including people with disabilities, lower literacy levels, or language barriers, ensuring equitable access to information.
Plain language aids inclusivity. The texts can reach a broader audience, including readers with lower literacy levels or people who are not fluent in the foreign language, by using simplified language that is easy to understand. This inclusivity ensures that more individuals can benefit from the content or services provided, which is also beneficial for the product or service itself.
It benefits screen reader users. Plain language helps screen reader users by providing content that is clear and, hence, more likely to be properly interpreted by assistive technology. Simplified vocabulary and language structure let screen readers convey information more effectively. This greatly enhances the experience for users who need to rely on assistive technologies.
Business advantage and technical benefits
Using plain language enhances compliance with regulations, improves international reach, and reduces misunderstandings or errors, leading to better efficiency and user satisfaction.
The introduction of plain language helps meet specific requirements. Many industries or business branches have specific regulations and guidelines that require accessible communication, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Using plain language can help projects comply with these requirements, benefiting accessibility and inclusivity. In areas such as aviation, clear communication is even more important, as human health and life depend on it. Legal, medical, and business documents also gain a lot when they are delivered clearly and understandably, eliminating potential business risks or health hazards.
Plain language facilitates better and easier internationalization. Projects that are intended for internationalization can greatly benefit from plain language when it comes to translation. Simple and clear language translates more accurately and efficiently into other languages. Proper translation reduces the risk of errors or misunderstandings in the translated content. Such errors can have potentially dangerous impacts or adversely affect the proper use of a product.
It improves SEO. While the detailed ways of algorithms remain somewhat of a mystery, it is known that search engines favor content that is easy to read and understand. Using plain language, easily scannable structure, and clear navigation, documentation websites can improve their SEO (search engine optimization). This greatly aids the discoverability of such projects, although in the days when most popular search engines feed their users with AI-generated content, the effectiveness of this approach may become questionable.
As we can see, plain language usage affects all important areas of technical writing to varying degrees. No matter which of these functional areas is crucial in our case, investing time into proper content creation is worthwhile and will present a significant return-on-investment ratio (ROI).
The following chapter will provide practical, battle-tried advice on how to incorporate plain language in both the design phase and daily work.