Janet Basdell – Founder and Director
Janet is a highly experienced technical author. Before starting Plain Words she was involved in all aspects of documentation production as an author, editor, translator and documentation manager. She also taught English as a foreign language to both adults and children.
She explains how Plain Words was named:
“My inspiration was Sir Ernest Gowers' classic book Plain Words. It was first published in 1948 and has never been out of print, although its title has changed slightly over the years and it's had several revisions. The original book was written as part of a Civil Service campaign to improve clarity, precision and brevity of official English. It's a witty and engaging read and the message is as relevant today as it was then.”
Plain Words began as a technical writing consultancy. This quickly expanded into recruitment of documentation professionals for a huge variety of organisations in many different industries. Latterly the focus has been on providing business and writing skills training to the public and private sector. Janet provides creative input to all aspects of the business.
