I’ve been a plain language specialist since 2002, as a writer, editor and trainer. Most of this work has been with Alison and has involved:

• writing business information, such as leaflets, newsletters, websites and, occasionally, promotional materials
• editing public and specialist information, such as reports, studies, guidelines and procedures
• training, where we draw from our own experience as writers and editors to help others learn new skills.

I took a formal plain English qualification in 1998, during a six-year stint as a public relations manager in one of Scotland’s former water authorities. That was from 1996 to 2002. 

Before then I spent 13 years as a news journalist on weekly and daily newspapers. I spent some of this as a news and feature writer and some as a news editor and editor.

Curiously, it was when I was editor of a weekly newspaper in the late 1980s that I first read about plain language.

“What a great idea! That makes so much sense,” I remember thinking at the time. I still do.

Formal stuff:

• Diploma in Plain English
• Graduate Diploma in Journalism
• BA (Hons) German and Spanish

Informal stuff:

• I’m a language enthusiast. I’ve also studied French, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish and Yiddish. Looking at how other languages work is a brilliant way to understand why and how things fit together in English.