The Plain English Institute (PEI) improves communications between organizations and people by promoting plain English – writing that is clear, concise and readily understood by the target audience. The use of plain English in business, education, government, law, medicine, research, and science lowers costs, improves productivity, increases credibility, and reduces misunderstandings.
PEI achieves its mission through education, advocacy, serving as a resource, and certification of documents that meet its standards. The Plain English Institute, Inc. (PEI) is a Colorado nonprofit corporation. PEI has applied for tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
PEI is committed to improving communications between organizations and people by promoting plain English – writing that is clear, concise, and readily understood by the target audience. The use of plain English in business, education, government, law, medicine, research and science lowers costs, improves productivity, increases credibility, and reduces misunderstandings. PEI achieves its mission through education, advocacy, serving as a resource, and providing certification standards for documents and those who draft them.
We developed standards to determine whether a document satisfies our requirements for certification as a plain English document.
If your organization’s document qualifies for the “Plain English Certified” designation, we will license your organization to use the “Plain English Certified” certification mark on the document and/or in marketing materials in accordance with our Trademark Use Policy. This demonstrates your organization’s commitment to clear communications in all its dealings. Customers and potential business partners that see the “Plain English Certified” certification mark will know they need not struggle with a poorly written document.
There is no formula for the perfect document. There is no perfect document. There are, however, accepted principles of good writing. There are also many techniques certain to make any document unnecessarily long and confusing. We encourage writing that is clear, concise, and readily understood by the target audience. We developed standards to help organizations draft documents in plain English.
