Academic papers on plain language – with summaries (of course!)

• Writing Matters

  Academics judge plain-language versions of papers as higher quality. They are more likely to accept them for a conference. They believe those papers have a better chance of being accepted at a good journal.

  — Published in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2024

• The Secret of Impressive Writing? Keep it plain and Simple

  Writers who use long words needlessly and choose complicated font styles are seen as less intelligent than those who stick with basic vocabulary and plain text.

  — Published in Applied Cognitive Psychology

• If it’s hard to read, it’s hard to do

  Processing fluency affects effort prediction and motivation.

  — Published in Psychological Science

• Plain language in the US gains momentum: 1940 - 2015

  Plain-language practitioners expanded their concerns from how people understand the content — to the usability and accessibility of the content — to whether people trust the content.

  — Published in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 60(4):343–383

• Words count: The empirical relationship between brief writing and summary judgment success

  Brief readability is significantly correlated to summary judgment success, but that correlation is stronger in federal than in state courts.

  — Published in The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute