Plain language
Writing an ordinary, distracted reader gets on the first pass: short words, short sentences, the point up front, no corporate fog.
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What it is
Plain language is writing aimed at a hurried, half-distracted reader who gets one pass at your text. Short common words, one idea per sentence, the point first, and no throat-clearing before it. It has real institutional roots: the UK Plain English Campaign, the US Plain Writing Act of 2010, and the GOV.UK style guide, which is the most copied plain-language standard on the web.
Reach for it anywhere failure is expensive: forms, errors, legal and billing pages, onboarding, anything a person reads while annoyed. The moves are mechanical. Cut 'in order to' to 'to'. Replace 'utilize', 'leverage', 'facilitate' with 'use', 'use', 'help'. Break any sentence over about 25 words. Say 'you' and 'we' instead of 'the user' and 'the platform'.
Gotcha: plain does not mean dumb, and readability scores are a thermometer, not the goal. Stripping out a term of art that your reader actually needs ('chargeback', 'deductible') makes the text shorter and less useful. Keep the load-bearing word, define it once in ordinary words, then use it consistently.
Ask AI for it
Rewrite this copy in plain language for a hurried reader. Put the main point in the first sentence. Keep sentences under 20 words and one idea each. Swap Latinate and corporate words for everyday ones (utilize to use, in order to to to, commence to start). Address the reader as 'you' and us as 'we'. Cut hedges like 'may potentially' and filler openers like 'In today's world'. Keep any technical term the reader genuinely needs, but define it once in plain words. Return the rewrite, then a short before/after list of the biggest cuts.