I've always learned the edict to simplify writing from as: when writing, try and keep it to simple, single compound, or single complex sentences. Rather than "d

I've always learned the edict to simplify writing from as: when writing, try and keep it to simple, single compound, or single complex sentences. Rather than "don't do ___", it's "freely express yourself with ____". Outside anything else, it's a more pleasant way to approach the topic, and there's a ton of freedom in it. Yes, it's similar to prescribing a word count or a page count because it puts a more-easily measured test on the writing. But it's also an indicating function to help stop a writer from introducing confusion through their grammar. Some industries have done quite a bit of research into the subject. Take, for example, the aerospace industry's Simplified Technical English[1][2]. Here, research into the readability of flight and maintenance manuals identified that shorter sentences were easier to understand for English-as-a-Second-Language speakers. A grammar was developed to reduce some of English's flexibility and make construction more predictable. This, paired with shorter sentences, dramatically increased the usability of print media for aerospace and defense applications. Shorter or simpler sentence construction can ultimately free the writer to be more expressive and to more clearly express his or her ideas. 1: http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/conferences/2002/aecma/aecma.pdf http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/conferences/2002/aecma/a... 2: http://www.asd-ste100.org/ http://www.asd-ste100.org/