Plain Language Workshops
Training to help legal professionals in Victoria better connect with the public.
Many people, including those with good literacy skills, have difficulty reading and understanding written communications about legal matters.
The law is often complex. Explaining the law in plain language can be challenging.
Our interactive online plain language workshops will help you get your message across. Learn how to create clear, engaging and easy-to-read letters, fact sheets and other pieces of legal writing.
About our workshops
Plain language workshops are delivered via Zoom by Bob Milstein of Words & Beyond. Bob is a practising lawyer and plain language expert.
Workshops are kept deliberately small to maximise opportunities for interaction and personalised feedback. Each workshop can accommodate a maximum of 20 people. Participants are required to complete a preliminary exercise before the workshop.
The workshop will cover topics including:
- Adjusting your tone for different audiences and purposes
- Word selection and sentence structure
- How to make your point effectively
- Planning, structuring and editing your document
- Your documents as the voice of your brand
- Using the active and passive voice
- How spelling, grammar and punctuation influence readability
Workshop details
Each workshop involves 4 hours of live online training, split over a morning and an afternoon session on the same day.
The morning session runs from 10.00am to 12.00pm, and the afternoon session runs from 1.00pm to 3.00pm.
During the break, you will receive your personalised written feedback on your preliminary exercise submission.
Workshop cost
$120 per person.
Who can attend?
This training is for people whose work involves the provision of legal services, information or advice in Victoria.
Priority registration is available for people who work at community legal organisations, including Community Legal Centres, VALS, Djirra and Victoria Legal Aid.
Bookings for each workshop are limited to 2 people per organisation.
If you have questions about eligibility, check out our terms and conditions or email us.
Plain language workshop terms and conditionsUpcoming workshops
The date of the next workshop will be announced soon.
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More information
If you'd like to join the mailing list or know more about the workshops, please get in touch.