Xero
Finalist: Best Plain English Sentence Transformation 2013
Ros Black’s sentence from 'Foreign currency bills and invoices'
Original sentence
If the organisation sending an invoice or bill has the multi-currency option and sends an invoice or bill in a foreign currency to an organisation that is not using multi-currency and their base currency is something different than the invoice or bill currency, then the invoice or bill will be received in the recipient's base currency and not converted to the currency of the invoice or bill.
Rewritten sentence
If you send a Xero to Xero invoice or bill to an organisation without multi-currency, be aware they will receive it in their currency.
Judges' comment
This rewrite has a lovely clarity and simplicity. Plenty of short, simple words make a readable style. You also cleaned out so much verbal detritus. There’s nothing to improve on the structure. It’s a classic ‘if / then’ sentence using the active voice that is effective and appropriate. This transformation shows just how possible it can be to strip words out of a sentence and retain the original content. The overall quality is excellent. Very well done!
Media statement
I'm delighted WriteMark selected me as a finalist for the Plain English Awards.
Xero makes beautiful accounting software that’s easy to use. I’m in the online Help Centre team — we make Xero even easier by writing Help pages which use plain English principles. We want Xero's customers to quickly find and understand the information they're looking for.
I take pride in writing clear and well-structured Help pages that customers can understand and apply after just one reading. It’s a great feeling to know my technical writing is helping thousands of small businesses around the world.
Ros Black