Plan Your Project

Identify the Purpose

Clearly define your project's objective.

Are you summarizing information for the Planning Board or District Council, informing the public, studying a problem or something else?
Your purpose shapes your language, tone, and document length.
For instance, use a formal tone for documents to be reviewed by the Planning Board or other officials, but a professional yet conversational tone works for public communications.

Know Your Audience

Identify your readers and their characteristics. Tailor your content to their needs, whether they are families, business owners, or environmental advocates. Consider their age and familiarity with technology.
Focus on what your audience needs to know not just what you want to say.
For multiple audiences, adapt your message or create different versions. The Publications Section can help tailor your communications.

Need Help with Planning a Project?

The Publications, Graphics, and Web Development Section can assist with:

Custom images, infographics, and charts
Drafting webpage content, including timelines, boundary maps, and contact details.
Social media strategies across platforms to broaden your message's reach.
Promotional materials design (posters, flyers, postcards, and banners).
High-quality photos, videos, and aerial drone imagery.

Organize Your Document in a Reader-Friendly Way

Identify Key Questions. Anticipate the questions your audience may have. What will they need to know to understand the subject? Focus on the essential information and remove unnecessary details.

Structure Your Draft. Arrange your content by the questions a reader might logically ask. Consider:

Creating headings based on the topic addressed.
Using a Q&A format, with questions as headings.
Writing headings that form a complete sentence.

Each paragraph should be short, focus on a single topic, and include clear transitions, and a topic sentence.

Ensure Logical Flow. Start with key conclusions or outcomes to grab attention and set the context for what's next.

Describe Processes. If your content explains a process, clearly outline each step, including who is responsible and relevant timeframes. Use a flowchart or other graphic to make the process easy to follow.

Begin with the End. Readers usually scan messages to quickly find the important parts of the document. Unless you are writing a novel, the most important part of the document needs to be at the beginning. Here are a few ideas highlight key points.

Start long documents with an easily executive summary of conclusions or recommendations.
Add callouts and sidebars to emphasize important details.

Improve Readability

Use simpler sentences that are easy to understand. Shorten sentences and paragraphs where possible and vary their length.

Are you using words that your audience is familiar with?
Is there a way to express the information simply that still provides your audience with the information they need to know?
Does using a less precise, but more familiar word change the meaning of the sentence/paragraph from your target audience's perspective?

Example:

✗"The proposed development will feature a multi-modal transit hub to facilitate interconnectivity and reduce the reliance on private vehicles, thereby promoting sustainable urban growth.

✓"The proposed building includes a station that connects different types of transport. The station will reduce residents' dependence on private cars, making the city more environmentally friendly."

Other ways to improve readability:

Add white space between paragraphs.
Use headings and subheadings (beyond section titles).
Replace narratives with bulleted or numbered lists when possible.
Use bold or italic for emphasis; avoid underlining - readers may confuse it with a hyperlink.
Replace long URLs with hyperlinks that use descriptive text.
Use callouts or sidebars.

 Callout text stands out from the regular text on the page with a box or change in fonts and background color. Callouts emphasize points that you want the reader to focus from the main text, such as a quote or important statistic.

A sidebar is a detailed callout that may include background information, glossaries, examples, or anecdotes. Sidebar text adds information to the main text instead of repeating it; the sidebar at the upper right of this page provides page tools and other information.

Be Clear and Concise

Government documents often rely on complex, academic-style sentences to demonstrate expertise, but this approach can hinder effective communication with the general public. The use of dense, lengthy sentences can make it hard for individuals and communities to understand our messages, which conflicts with M-NCPPC's values.

While plain language guidelines value conciseness, the goal is to increase the chance that your reader understands the message. Using plain language doesn't always mean shortening a sentence or paragraph. It's better to keep the length of the section or add a few more words if it makes a concept clearer to your reader. See the examples below.

Make it Shorter

✗ "Appropriateness is evaluated by the Planning Board and the implementing agency for each specific project depending on community needs, environmental constraints, and right-of-way constraints, with final determination by the County Council."

✓ "The Planning Board and M-NCPPC assess project suitability based on community needs, environmental factors, and land use limitations, with final approval by the County Council."

Make it Clearer

✗ "With the prior written consent of the Planning Board, which is not to be unreasonably withheld, the Planning Board can grant, within 14 days of the application, the developer permission to assign the development agreement."

✓ "The Planning Board may allow the developer to assign the development agreement within 14 days from date the application is filed. The board must give written consent prior to the assignment and cannot withhold consent without reasonable justification."

✓ "The developer may obtain permission from the Planning Board to assign the development agreement within 14 days of the application file date. The Planning Board cannot withhold permission without reasonable justification."

✓ "The Planning Board may allow the developer to assign the development agreement:

within 14 days of the application date, and
with written board consent prior to the assignment.

The Planning Board cannot unreasonably withhold consent to the assignment."

Remove Excessive Detail, Repetitiveness, and Redundant/Filler Words


✗	✓
"I received and read the email you sent yesterday about the report you're writing for the project. I agree it needs a thorough, close review from someone familiar with your audience."	"I received your email about the project report and agree it needs a review from someone familiar with your audience."
"The test revealed conduction activity that was peculiar in nature."	"The test revealed peculiar conduction activity."
"Many Metro stations have facilities for bicycle storage. This facilitates riding a bicycle to a station, storing it there, and continuing the trip on Metrorail or Metrobus."	"Many Metro stations offer bicycle storage, allowing riders to continue their journey on Metrorail or Metrobus."

Tips:

Set word or page limits for your project and adhere to them; this will help you to review your document for the issues described above. If this writing project is periodical, challenge yourself to convey the same amount of information as the previous version in fewer words.
This list of unnecessary words will help you to identify the passages that should be shortened.

Create Figures to Help Your Reader

A figure is a chart, table, graph, illustration, or infographic that can convey necessary information using a minimum of written text. Using figures makes your document more concise; it can also make the document less dense by increasing white space.

Would you prefer to read this?

Approximately 77.14 acres is designated retail, 116.16 acres industrial, 2.26 acres mixed used, and 14.08 acres office. The retail uses are concentrated along Bladensburg Road, Kenilworth Avenue, and Annapolis Road. Industrial is concentrated west of Kenilworth Avenue, in the Town of Edmonston. The little mixed use or office uses that exist in the sector plan area is centered in the core near the intersections of Bladensburg Road, Kenilworth Avenue and Annapolis Road. (72 words)

Or this?

**Land Use in Port Towns**
Use	Size (Acres)	Concentrated Areas
Retail	77.14	Bladensburg Road, Kenilworth Avenue, Annapolis Road
Industrial	116.6	West of Kenilworth Avenue in Edmonston
Mixed-Use	2.26	In the core near intersection of Bladensburg Road, Kenilworth Avenue, and Annapolis Road
Office	14.08	In the core near intersection of Bladensburg Road, Kenilworth Avenue, and Annapolis Road

(42 words)

The Publications Section can help you with creating figures for your projects or making your existing figures more reader-friendly.