# Plain-Language Rewrite Plan

Plan a reader-centered rewrite of complex content while protecting required meaning, legal or technical precision, decisions, conditions, and exceptions.

## Usage note

Make the content easier to understand without deleting conditions a reader needs. If a required legal, medical, financial, or technical meaning is uncertain, involve a qualified reviewer before approving the rewrite.

## How to use this template

1. Define the reader situation, primary decision, context, and barriers to understanding.
2. Extract mandatory facts, conditions, exceptions, terms, and risks with subject-owner approval.
3. Plan a reader-first order and specific wording or format changes for each difficult passage.
4. Test important tasks and explanations with representative readers and record failures.
5. Complete meaning, accessibility, editorial, and subject review before publishing.

## Blank template

### Reader and task

- **Source asset and version:** [Enter]
- **Intended reader:** [Describe situation, not a demographic stereotype]
- **Reader's main question:** [Write in their likely words]
- **Decision or action:** [What must they understand or do?]
- **Prior knowledge:** [What can reasonably be assumed?]
- **Context or stress factors:** [Time pressure, device, language, consequences]
- **Known comprehension barrier:** [Describe evidence or observation]

### Meaning inventory

- **Required outcome:** [State]
- **Mandatory facts:** [List]
- **Conditions and eligibility rules:** [List]
- **Deadlines and effective dates:** [List]
- **Risks or consequences:** [List]
- **Exceptions:** [List]
- **Rights and choices:** [List]
- **Necessary technical or legal terms:** [Term, definition, approved use]
- **Meaning owner:** [Name and approval date]

### Rewrite map

Duplicate for each source passage.

- **Passage ID and original purpose:** [Enter]
- **Reader problem:** [Unknown actor / Dense condition / Jargon / Poor order / Other]
- **Required meaning:** [Copy from inventory]
- **Planned change:** [Move / Split / Define / Replace / List / Example / Delete]
- **Draft plain-language version:** [Write]
- **Meaning risk to check:** [Describe]
- **Expert reviewer:** [Name/role]

### Structure and language checks

- [ ] The direct answer or required action appears before background detail.
- [ ] Actors and responsibilities are named clearly.
- [ ] Sentences express one manageable relationship without severing conditions.
- [ ] Necessary terms are defined once and used consistently.
- [ ] Headings and lists help readers predict and scan the content.
- [ ] Examples are labeled and do not imply broader rights or results.
- [ ] Help, error recovery, and escalation routes are easy to find.

### Comprehension test and approval

- **Participants and relevant context:** [Describe respectfully]
- **Find task:** [What must they locate?]
- **Explain task:** [What must they restate?]
- **Action scenario:** [What decision must they make?]
- **Observed errors or hesitation:** [Record]
- **Revision made:** [Describe]
- **Meaning review:** [Reviewer, version, date]
- **Final editorial approval:** [Reviewer, version, date]
- **Next review trigger:** [Policy change, user evidence, scheduled date]