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The Clarity Journal

Our biannual journal, The Clarity Journal, is the leading source of plain language news and research from across the globe. The journal features the latest plain language research, practical advice, before-and-after examples, success stories, campaign strategies and much more.

The Clarity Journal is distributed free to members, keeping you up-to-date and informed of changes and trends in plain language and clear communication. Become a member to access the most recent journals.

Contact our Editor-in-Chief at editor@clarity-international.org for advertising, article submissions and enquiries.

  • The Clarity Journal 59 May 2008

    In this issue :

    1. The building blocks on Wessel’s website: the Amsterdam challenge
    2. Setting the standard: some steps toward a plain language profession
    3. Strong, cautious support: Clarity’s position on standards and accreditation
    4. International plain language standards— the view from the Center for Plain Language
    5. Writing by numbers: are readability formulas to clarity what karaoke is to song?
    6. Some thoughts on standards
    7. Towards a plain lingua franca for India
    8. Getting a grip on plain language
    9. The Dutch Constitution in plain language
    10. Plain Portuguese, the new member of the plain language family
    11. Clear language: the municipal challenge
    12. Best practices: key features of the City’s new staff report design
    13. Plain-language changes to the City of Toronto’s procedures by law
    14. 2 continents + 2 approaches + 1 vision = effective government communication
    15. Tools and techniques for working with subject matter experts to create plain language manuals
    16. A national organization of physicians embraces plain language: a case study and what we learned
    17. Certified plain-language consultants already exist in Sweden
    18. Linguistic lingo for lawyers—word classes
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  • The Clarity Journal 58 November 2007

    In this issue :

    1. Measuring plain language at the British Columbia Securities Commission
    2. Plain language in financial correspondence: bridging the consumer-to-customer gap
    3. Lord Renton 1908–2007
    4. What makes a document readable?
    5. Learning about plain language through a community development project on adult literacy
    6. Keeping errors in Czech
    7. Drafting matters—letters of advice
    8. Tips from a unique provider of South African legal research
    9. Book review—Informed choices with a capital ‘G’
    10. Book review—Indlish
    11. Linguistic lingo for lawyers— personal pronouns and gender: a dialogue
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  • The Clarity Journal 57 May 2007

    In this issue :

    1. Opening speech at the conference for the launch of New Zealand’s WriteMark plain English awards
    2. Judicial attitudes to plain language and the law
    3. Clarity member receives the Burton Award
    4. Lord David Renton
    5. Introductory editorial for the seminar in print
    6. Linguistic nasties and niceties: Who should we pander to? Or to whom should we pander?
    7. A rant in favour of empathy and against relativism: the impact of grammar, punctuation and usage on clarity
    8. House style—whose style is it?
    9. Editing judgments: lessons learned in law reporting
    10. The continuing insult to the language
    11. Punctuation
    12. Letter to the editor
    13. Improving our writing by understanding how people read personally addressed household mail
    14. A redrafting exercise
    15. Clarity for Lawyers—Effective Legal Writing
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  • The Clarity Journal 56 November 2006

    In this issue :

    1. A retrospect for Clarity
    2. Plain language in the UK
    3. Plain language in Scottish legislation
    4. Plain legal language in the English courts
    5. Plain language, the “Better Law-Making Charter” and some UK developments
    6. Plain English revolution officially announced
    7. Clarity for South Africa’s credit consumers
    8. Implementing plain language at Mallesons
    9. Evolution of an easy-to-understand financial privacy notice
    10. Two items from the US
    11. Improving financial disclosure for individual investors
    12. Legislative update: Plain language and government accountability office regulation review
    13. Understanding barristers’ opinions: a discourse analytical perspective
    14. Plain language: a survey by Sydney law students
    15. Plain language in legal agreements: is it safe?
    16. Linguistic lingo for lawyers—‘person’ and other grammitical terms for personal pronoun forms in English
    17. The importance of punctuation
    18. Drafting tips—recasting a document
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  • The Clarity Journal 55 May 2006

    In this issue :

    1. Master class in English, for Clarity’s conference in Boulogne: writing the law in plain language— three versions
    2. Instructionsfor Queues Bill
    3. Queues Bill 2005
    4. Commentary and Queues Bill 2005
    5. Queues Bill 2005
    6. Drafting master classes: plain languagestyles are not consistent
    7. Introduction to theinternationalroundtable at the Fifth Plain Language Association INternational(PLAIN)Conference
    8. Plain language developmentsin Australia
    9. Plain language in the Senate of Chili
    10. Plain language in Spain
    11. What’s on in plain Swedish
    12. Recent plain-language progressin the U.K.
    13. Plain languagein the United States government
    14. Removing barriers to food stamp assistance— one complex form at a time
    15. Health literacy: the importance of clear communication for better health
    16. Making things clear: how we are winning— 6 strategies and themesto our work
    17. You can fix your own English
    18. Technical jargon: an approach, an idea and an offering
    19. Taking an overview: three rules of thumb
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  • The Clarity Journal 54 November 2005

    In this issue :

    1. Thefounding of Clarity
    2. Master Class No. 2, Boulogne conference : Drafting fromscratch—three versions
    3. NoiseBill instructions and comments
    4. TroublesomeNoiseDisclosure Act
    5. Noise Act 2005
    6. Comments on the draft Bills
    7. Master Class No. 2, Boulogne conference: Revisory drafting—three revisions
    8. The revision that emerged from the project to “restyle” the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
    9. Cleaning up the act: using plain English in legislation
    10. Testing—we need to do more, more often
    11. Plain language at the Regulator
    12. Whatreadability expert witnessesshould know
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  • The Clarity Journal 53 May 2005

    In this issue :

    1. How the European Commission drafts legislation in 20 languages
    2. The European Central Bank’s approach to drafting legislation in 20 languages
    3. The effect of poorly written legislation in a bilingual legal system
    4. Producing multilingual legislation in Switzerland
    5. Linguistic oddities in European Union legislation: don’t shoot the translator
    6. Just fix the English
    7. plain language movement in Italy
    8. Canada’s multilingual plain language projects
    9. Legalese of biblical proportions: some observations on legal language in Israel
    10. Citizen’s Language: Plain language in Mexico
    11. Plain language in Spain
    12. Plain English in Asia
    13. Legal English in Japan: a translator’s perspective
    14. Plain English in Singapore: preparing the next generation of lawyers
    15. ASD simplified technical English
    16. A forensic test of a Pennsylvanian contract
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  • The Clarity Journal 52 November 2004

    In this issue :

    1. Plain English and New Zealand statutes
    2. Imperatives in drafting legislation: a brief New Zealand perspective
    3. Plain language in New Zealand: the drafting of legislation
    4. Writing decisions in the New Zealand Disputes Tribunal
    5. The power of language—the lawyer’s dilemma
    6. Rewriting the Income Tax Act
    7. Decisions that convince
    8. Plain language and law graduates in New Zealand
    9. Definitions and capitals: where are we?
    10. O ate 2 of Jill’r pairs
    11. The doleful grip of convention
    12. Plain language in Mexico
    13. Exploring meanings of plain language
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  • The Clarity Journal 51 May 2004

    In this issue :

    1. Legal writing: some tools
    2. Drafting readable laws
    3. Advice from the Deep South
    4. D MacDonald Disclosure overload: lawyers are the problem, not the solution
    5. D Hyndman Plain language means better regulation
    6. R Grotsky Plain language: its effects on organizational performance
    7. Know your rights: a plain language series illuminates legal issues for seniors
    8. D Huron Testing plain language texts with adult learners
    9. J Aitken Tudor drafting
    10. D Elliott The Orians, the Andians and the Andorians
    11. D Elliott Provided—and the Kingdom of If
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  • The Clarity Journal 50 November 2003

    In this issue :

    1. R Scheer Dear Tony: a lesson in plain English
    2. Is plain language appropriate for well-educated and politically important people?
    3. M Hochhauser Compliance v Communication S Benjamin Words at work: a study
    4. J Kimble The elements of plain language
    5. C Staughton How do the courts interpret commercial contacts?
    6. R Eagleson Numbers: figures or words
    7. R Castle Relative clauses: the “that/which” debate
    8. P Knight on hereby
    9. R Eagleson Conjunctions in lists
    10. C Mowatt Clarity’s new look
    11. D Revell Words as numbers
    12. R Castle Drafting Trusts and Will Trusts, by James Kessler
    13. D Elliott Plain Language for Lawyers, by Michèle Asprey
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