How to write

clearly
Translation 1
 e
How to writ
clearly

European Commission staff have to write many different types of documents. Whatever the type — legisla-
tion, a technical report, minutes, a press release or a speech — a clear document will be more effective and
more easily and quickly understood. This guide will help you to write clearly, whether you are using your own
language or one of the other official languages, all of which are also working languages of the Commission
according to Council Regulation No 1/1958 (still valid today!).

These are hints, not rules, and when applying them you should take into account your target readers and the
purpose of your document.

Three good reasons to write clearly are:

• to work more effectively together;
• to reduce unnecessary correspondence;
• to build goodwill.

Hint 1: Think before you write...............................................................................................................................page 3

Hint 2: Focus on the reader......................................................................................................................................page 4

Hint 3: Get your document into shape.............................................................................................................page 5

Hint 4: KISS: keep it short and simple...................................................................................................................page 6

Hint 5: Make sense — structure your sentences...........................................................................................page 7

Hint 6: Cut out excess nouns — verb forms are livelier..........................................................................page 8

Hint 7: Prefer active verbs to passive ones — and name the agent..........................................page 9

Hint 8: Be concrete, not abstract.....................................................................................................................page 10

Hint 9: Beware of false friends, jargon and abbreviations.........................................................page 11

Hint 10: Revise and check.......................................................................................................................................page 14

Online drafting aids of the European Union...........................................................................................page 15

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1. Think before you write

Clear writing starts with and depends on clear think- What points must the document
ing. Ask yourself the following questions. cover?
• Decide on your message.
Who will be reading the document? • Make a list or bubble diagram (see illustration)
containing all the points you expect to make, in
Three main groups of people read European Com- no particular order.
mission documents: • Cross out the irrelevant points.
• EU insiders — colleagues in the European • Link the remaining points into related groups.
Commission or other institutions; • Fill any gaps in your knowledge: make a note of
• outside specialists; facts you will need to check and/or experts you
• the general public — which is by far the largest will need to consult.
group.
This approach applies to practically all non-literary
Most European Commission documents are now on texts: memos, reports, letters, user guides, etc. For
the internet and available to everyone. Everything formal documents such as legislation, specific draft-
we write and publish as part of our work for the ing rules must be followed.
European Commission inevitably affects the public
image of the EU. See Hint 2 for tips on reader focus. An alternative is the ‘7 questions’ approach.
This is a structured method of covering relevant in-
formation.
What are you trying to achieve?
WHAT?  My essential message.
What is the purpose of your document? After read- WHO?  People concerned.
ing it, what will your readers have to do?
WHEN?  Days, hours, timelines
• Make a decision? and deadlines.
• Handle a certain situation? WHERE?  Places.
• Solve a particular problem? HOW?  Circumstances
• Change their attitude towards something? and explanations.
WHY?  Causes and/or objectives.
HOW MUCH?  Calculable and measurable
data.

iations
abbrev long

jargon

passiv ct
e abstra

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2. Focus on the reader

Be direct and interesting • Imagine which questions they might ask and
make sure the document answers them. Maybe
Always consider the people you’re really writing for: even use these questions as subheadings, for
not just your boss or the reviser of your translations, example: ‘What changes will this new policy
but the end users. Like you, they’re in a hurry. Who make?’ ‘Why is this policy needed?’ ‘Who will be
are they, what do they already know and what might affected?’ ‘What do we expect to achieve?’
you need to explain?
• Interest them. Give them only the information
Try to see your subject from the point of view of they actually need. Leave out as many
your readers. details of European Commission procedures
and interinstitutional formalities as you can.
• Involve them by addressing them directly (‘you’ These are meaningless to most readers and
is an underused word in European Commission simply reinforce the Commission’s image as a
documents). bureaucratic and distant institution. If they are
really essential, briefly explain why.

Now you can prepare your outline.

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3. Get your document into shape

When you start As you write

• If your outline includes a summary, begin with • Follow our hints below.
that — you may find it is enough! Put it at • Consult EU drafting aids (see last page).
the beginning because that is the first (and
• Keep cutting! Be tough — ask if each
sometimes the only) part that people will read.
section and each word is really necessary.
Cut out superfluous words, but make sure the
• Pay particular attention to links that will help
message is still clear.
readers to follow your logic and reasoning.
Choose headings and other ‘signposts’ that will The deadline to be observed for the

enable them to find key information and save submission of applications is 31 March
you from repeating it throughout the document. 2012.
Use informative headings and subheadings
The deadline for submitting applications
to highlight the most important points of the
is 31 March 2012.
document. A heading such as ‘Mergers need to
be monitored more carefully’ is more informative Application deadline: 31 March

than ‘Monitoring mergers’. 2012.

• Consider how best to make your points and keep

your document reader-friendly — could you use Once you’ve finished
icons, graphs or tables instead of text? Do
you need a glossary or a list of definitions? See Hint 10 for advice on revising and checking.

• After the beginning, the next most frequently

read part is the conclusion. A reader may skip
everything in between to get to the conclusion.
Make it clear, concise and to the point.

• Show your readers the structure of longer

documents by including a clear table of
contents.

Two common problems at the European Commission

1. Recycling an earlier text without adapting it properly
Older models may be unclearly written and may not reflect new circumstances
and new drafting practices. Take care to make all the necessary adaptations.

2. Cutting and pasting

You may have to use passages from a variety of documents to assemble a new
text. Beware of inconsistent terminology, repetition or omission — these can
undermine the internal logic and clarity of the end result.

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4. KISS:keep it short and simple

Short ... … and simple

The value of a document does not increase the Use simple words where possible. Simple language
longer it gets. Your readers will not respect you more will not make you seem less learned or elegant, it
because you have written 20 pages instead of 10, will make you more credible.
especially when they realise that you could have
written what you wanted to say in 10. They may
well resent you for taking more of their time than
necessary.
in view of the fact that as
Some ways to cut out unnecessary words include a certain number of some
the following. the majority of most
• Not stating the obvious. Trust your readers’
pursuant to under
common sense.
within the framework of under
• Not cluttering your document with redundant accordingly, consequently so
expressions like ‘as is well known’, ‘it is generally
for the purpose of to
accepted that’, ‘in my personal opinion’, ‘and so
on and so forth’, ‘both from the point of view of in the event of if
A and from the point of view of B’, etc. if this is not the case if not
if this is the case if so
• Not repeating yourself. When referring to a
committee with a long name, for example, write concerning, regarding, relating to on
out the full name once only: ‘This question was with reference to, with regard to about
put to the Committee on the Procurement of
Language Style Guides. The committee said
that ...’

Shorter documents and shorter sentences tend to

have more impact.

As a guide:
1 document = 15 pages at most
1 sentence = 20 words on average
(but sprinkle in a few short sentences!)
Unnecessarily long sentences are a serious obstacle
to clarity in European Commission documents. Try
to break them up into shorter sentences. However,
remember to include link words (‘but’, ‘so’, ‘however’,
etc.) so the coherence doesn’t get lost in the process.

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 Simple, uncluttered style also
means … You must hand in your application by

Tuesday. The committee may turn down
your request … (i.e. your application — or
… avoiding ambiguity
is it?).
If you use the same word to refer to different things,
you could confuse your reader.
You must hand in your application by

Tuesday. The committee may turn it
You must hand in your application
down …
by Tuesday. You may also submit an
application for this deadline to be
postponed. Your application … (what are … using the positive form, not the negative
we talking about now?)
It is not uncommon for applications to

You must hand in your application by be rejected, so do not complain unless
you are sure you did not complete yours
Tuesday. You may also ask for the
deadline to be postponed. Your incorrectly.
application …
It is quite common for applications to be

rejected, so complain only if you are sure
… not changing words just for ‘style’
you completed yours correctly.
You may think you can make your document less
boring by using different words to refer to the same
thing. Again, though, you could confuse your reader.

5. Make sense— structure your sentences

You may have to write (or improve) a text contain- Don’t bury important information in the middle
ing a mass of facts and ideas. Here are some ways of the sentence.
of untangling the information so that readers will
understand each sentence straight away. As for reducing roaming charges, the

Commission outlined several proposals.
Name the agents of each action (see Hint 7)
and put the actions in the order in which they The Commission outlined several

occur. proposals for reducing roaming charges.

Its decision on allocation of EU assistance The smoking in restaurants ban now

will be taken subsequent to receipt of seems likely to be implemented.
all project applications at the Award
Committee’s meeting. Smoking in restaurants is now likely to be

banned.

When all applicants have submitted Try to give your sentences strong endings

their project applications, 1
— that’s the bit readers will remember.
the Award Committee will meet 2
to decide 3 Complete institutional reform is

advocated by the report in most cases.
how much EU aid it will grant to each
one. 4
In most cases, the report advocates

complete institutional reform.

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6. Cut out excess nouns— verb forms are livelier

One simple way to write more clearly is to change There are other nouns that don’t end in ‘-ion’ but are
also verbs in disguise.
this … to this …

by the destruction of by destroying conduct a review of review

for the maximisation of for maximising perform an assessment of assess
of the introduction of of introducing effect a renewal of renew

By making this change, we are simply turning a noun So we can make a document clearer by turning
back into a verb. Verbs are more direct and less ab- some nouns back into verbs.
stract than nouns. Many nouns ending in ‘-ion’ are
simply verbs in disguise. They often occur in phrases The practice of growing perennials

like these ones below, where verbs would be clearer. instead of annual crops can bring about
an improvement of soil quality by
effecting an increase in soil cover.

Growing perennials instead of annual

carry out an evaluation of evaluate
crops can improve soil quality by
hold an investigation of investigate increasing soil cover.
give consideration to consider

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7. Prefer active verbs to passive ones— and name
the agent

Another easy step to clear writing is to use verbs in Name the agent
the active voice (‘the car hit a tree’) rather than the
passive (‘a tree was hit by the car’). Compare the If you change passive verb forms into active ones,
following. your writing will become clearer because you will be
forced to name the agent — the person, organisa-
New guidelines have been laid down by tion or thing that is carrying out the action.

the President in the hope that the length
of documents submitted by DGs will be It’s easy to identify the agent in the following ex-
restricted to 15 pages. ample.

The President has laid down new This project was rejected at Commission

guidelines in the hope that DGs will level.
restrict the length of documents to 15
pages. The Commission rejected this project.

Look how we can make a sentence clearer However, it is impossible in the next example.
by cutting out passives.
It is considered that tobacco advertising should be
Unclear banned in the EU.

A recommendation was made by the
European Parliament that consideration Who considers? The writer, the Commission,
be given by the Member States to a the public, the medical profession or other?
simplification of the procedure.
Remember that EU documents have to be trans-
A bit better lated into several languages. If your original docu-

The European Parliament made a ment is unclear, you may end up with non-matching
recommendation that the Member States translations, as each translator tries to guess what
give consideration to a simplification of you might have meant and comes up with a differ-
the procedure. ent solution.

And finally by using verbs instead of abstract You don’t have to avoid passives at all costs
nouns. though. They can be useful, for example when
there’s no need to say who is responsible for the ac-
Much better
tion because it’s obvious (‘All staff are encouraged
The European Parliament recommended
to write clearly’).
that the Member States consider
simplifying the procedure.

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8. Be concrete, not abstract

Concrete messages are clear — abstract language TIP: In Word, highlight and right-click on a word and
can be vague and off-putting. Too much abstract select ‘Synonyms’ near the bottom of the menu
language might even lead your reader to think that that appears in order to find the word you are really
either you don’t know what you are writing about or looking for. The list of synonyms will contain both
your motives for writing are suspect. abstract and concrete words. Try to choose a con-
crete word instead of a vaguer all-purpose one. For
Unless you have a good reason, if you can use a example, the word identify is perfectly acceptable,
concrete word instead of a more abstract one that but sometimes a clearer word is better, as illustrated
means the same thing, you should choose the in the following examples.
concrete word. Your message will be more direct
and therefore more powerful. to identify innovations to spot innovations

Sometimes, instead you could try this ... to identify the participants to name the
of this … participants
to identify the meaning to see/show/
pinpoint the

meaning
eliminate cut out
achieve an objective meet a target
employment jobs
opportunities
negative evolution downturn
remunerated paid work
employment
investing in human — (workforce) training
capital * — improving (workers’)
skills
— training and education
* As this example shows, the problem is often
pinning down your exact meaning.

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9. Beware of false friends, jargon and abbreviations

Avoid false friends command/direct’ or ‘to restrict/limit’. It does not

mean simply ‘to check/supervise’ like contrôler in
False friends (or faux amis) are pairs of words in French. Using the wrong word can alienate readers,
two languages that look similar but differ in mean- making the EU institutions look like a closed club
ing. that is out of touch with the real world. In the worst
case, it can lead to misunderstandings and diplo-
In a multilingual environment like the European matic incidents (for example, if you just want to say
Commission, we often mix up our languages. Bor- that Luxembourg is small but write ‘Luxembourg is
rowing between French and English is common. For not an important country’).
instance, ‘to control’ in English normally means ‘to

French False friend Why is it wrong? What’s the correct word?

actuel actual ‘actual’ means ‘real’ current, topical
adéquat adequate ‘adequate’ means ‘sufficient’ suitable
assister à assist at ‘assist’ means ‘help’ attend, participate in
attribuer attribute to ‘attribute to’ means ‘consider allocate to, assign to
to be due to/characteristic of’
compléter complete ‘complete’ means ‘finish’ supplement
délai delay ‘a delay’ means ‘a postponement deadline, time limit
or hold-up’ (= retard in French)
élaborer elaborate (verb) ‘to elaborate’ means ‘to go into draft, develop, produce
detail’
éventuel eventual ‘eventual’ means ‘ultimate’ any
prévu foreseen ‘foreseen’ means ‘predicted’ provided for, planned
important important ‘important’ is right if you mean > large
‘significant’, but not if you mean >
matériel material ‘material’ means ‘matter’, supplies, equipment
‘information’
opportunité opportunity ‘opportunity’ means ‘chance’ advisability
perspectives perspectives ‘perspective’ means ‘standpoint’ prospects, outlook
respecter respect ‘to respect’ means ‘to value’ or comply with (rules), meet
‘honour’ someone or something (a deadline)
sensible sensible ‘sensible’ means ‘reasonable’ sensitive

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Avoid or explain jargon And if you do have to use jargon terms in documents
for the general public, explain them when you first
Jargon is vocabulary used by any group of insiders use them or add a glossary, a hyperlink or a refer-
or specialists to communicate with each other and ence to one of the websites indicated at the bottom
is acceptable in documents which are only read by of this page.
that particular group.
This non-exhaustive table contains a number of
However, outsiders (especially the general public) terms commonly used in the EU institutions.
will have to work harder than they need to or want
to when reading jargon. Some readers may even
stop reading — so make sure that any document
you want outsiders to read is as jargon-free as pos-
sible.

Jargon term Suggested definition

acceding country country about to join the EU
acquis (communautaire) body of EU law
candidate country country still negotiating to join the EU
cohesion approach aimed at reducing social and economic disparities within the EU
comitology procedure under which the Commission consults committees of experts
Community method method developed for taking decisions in the EU where the Parliament,
Council and Commission work together
enlargement expansion of the EU to include new members
mainstreaming taking into account in all EU policies
proportionality principle that a level of government must not take any action that exceeds
the necessary to carry out its assigned tasks
subsidiarity principle that, wherever possible, decisions must be taken at the level of
government closest to citizens

Clear explanations of much jargon and definitions

of more technical and legal terms arising in an EU
context can be found in glossaries and jargon lists
on the Europa website (eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/
glossary.html?locale=en; europa.eu/!YN99Uy).

12
Take care with abbreviations As always, consider your readers’ needs.
• Some readers will be irritated if ‘common’
Too many unfamiliar abbreviations can make a abbreviations are spelled out.
document incomprehensible and put your reader to • Writing ‘marketing authorisation holder’ on
sleep: ERDF + EAGGF + CAP = ZZZ. every other line instead of ‘MAH’ will make the
document much longer.
If the meaning of an abbreviation might not be clear
to your reader, you should: Remember that abbreviations and acronyms can
• write them out in full if the expression only mean different things in different contexts.
occurs once or twice in the document; or
• spell them out when you first use them in For example:
a document, followed by the abbreviation
in brackets and then use the abbreviation ESA stands for European Space Agency
throughout the rest of the document; and/or Euratom Supply Agency
• attach a list of abbreviations or a hyperlink to European system of accounts
show what they stand for.
Endangered Species Act
The ‘Main acronyms and initialisms’ section of the environmentally sensitive area
Interinstitutional style guide (publications.europa. eastern and southern Africa
eu/code/en/en-5000400.htm) defines many of the
acronyms and abbreviations used in European Com- electron-stimulated adsorption
mission documents. and several other alternatives.

Source: iate.europa.eu

ESA ESA ESA ESA

ESA

ESA ESA ESA ESA

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10. Revise and  cheque  check

• Use spelling and grammar checkers, but be Need more help?

aware that they don’t pick up all mistakes. Even when you have finished your document —
and made it as clear as possible by following the
• Reread your document critically, putting yourself tips given here — you may feel that your writing
in the reader’s shoes. Are the sentences and could still be improved. Perhaps you are not sure
paragraphs clearly linked? Do they follow on of the right verb or preposition to use or some
logically from each other? There will always be sentences may still be longer and more awkward
something you can improve or simplify. than you would like.

• Ask colleagues to comment, including some who

haven’t been consulted earlier. Send your texts for editing
(Commission staff only)
• Listen to their suggestions carefully.
You can contact DG Translation and ask for your
• Follow those which improve brevity, clarity and document to be edited. Priority is given to docu-
reader-friendliness. ments that come under the Commission’s work pro-
gramme, that are to be subsequently translated by
DG Translation or that are intended for publication to
a wide audience. Full details are available at
myintracomm.ec.europa.eu/serv/en/dgt/making_
request/edit/pages/index.aspx,
where you will also find our in-house writer’s
toolbox.

Having regard PEACE?

to the grossly
negative effect
of hostilities
we hereby call
for immediate
cessation of such
hostilities.

14
Online drafting aids of the European Information on EU publications in all official lan-
Union guages is in the Interinstitutional style guide pro-
duced by the Publications Office:
The Directorate-General for Translation — the trans- publications.europa.eu/code/en/en-000100.htm
lation department of the European Commission —
provides clear writing guides and style guides for all Guidance on drafting EU legislation in all official lan-
official EU languages on its website: guages is in the Joint practical guide:
ec.europa.eu/translation eur-lex.europa.eu/content/techleg/KB0213228ENN.
pdf
Detailed information on in-house conventions for
English spelling, punctuation and usage is in the For advice on writing for the web, see the Informa-
English style guide produced by DG Translation: tion providers guide:
europa.eu/!uB38wb ec.europa.eu/ipg/content/tips

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15
 HC-02-15-257-EN-N
Acknowledgements
This guide draws on sources including:
Oxford guide to plain English, Martin Cutts, Oxford, United Kingdom
Écrire pour être lu, Ministère de la Communauté française, Belgium
30 regole per scrivere testi amministrativi chiari, Università di Padova, Italy
Bürgernahe Verwaltungssprache, Bundesverwaltungsamt, Germany
Klarspråk lönar sig, Regeringskansliet, Justitiedepartementet, Sweden
Käännetäänkö tekstisi, tulkataanko puheenvuorosi? Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus, Finland
Writing for translation, Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union
OECD style guide, second edition, OECD, Paris.

Illustrations by Zeta Field, DG Translation, European Commission.

This guide is available in all official languages of the European Union.

You can find the online version of this guide at
ec.europa.eu/translation