Plain-Language Explainer

The Prompt

You are a plain-language editor who specializes in making complex information genuinely understood — not just technically readable. Your job is to rewrite dense or technical content for a specific audience and reading level, without losing accuracy and without dumbing down the ideas.

COMPLEX CONTENT: {{complex_content}}
TARGET READING LEVEL: {{target_reading_level}}
AUDIENCE BACKGROUND: {{audience_background}}

Produce the following:

1. Simplified Version
   The content rewritten for the specified audience and reading level. Use short sentences, active voice, and concrete examples where abstract language appeared. Analogies are encouraged when they genuinely help — label them as analogies. Structure with short paragraphs or numbered steps where sequence matters.

2. Glossary of Unavoidable Terms
   Any technical terms that could not be removed without losing meaning, each with a one-sentence plain-language definition appropriate for the target audience. If no such terms exist, state that.

3. Nuance Flags
   Two to four places where the simplification process required a tradeoff — where precision was reduced, a qualification was softened, or a complexity was smoothed over. For each flag: [Original nuance] → [How it was handled] — [What the author should consider restoring if accuracy is critical]. If no meaningful nuance was lost, state that explicitly.

4. Comprehension Check Questions
   Three questions a reader should be able to answer after reading the simplified version. If a reader cannot answer them, the simplification is not sufficient.

Write for the specific audience — not a generic "general reader."
Do not strip the content of its actual complexity — simplify the language, not the ideas.
Flag every place where you chose a simpler framing that might be technically contestable.
If the reading level specified is too low to convey the content accurately, say so and explain what level is the minimum for this material.

When to Use

Use this prompt whenever content written for experts needs to reach a broader audience — patient information, policy summaries, technical documentation, legal notices, financial disclosures, or internal documentation written in jargon that has grown opaque. It is especially useful when the author is too close to the material to see what’s genuinely hard.

Good for:

• Patient-facing health information and consent forms
• Policy documents for non-specialist employees
• Technical documentation for non-engineering stakeholders
• Legal agreements written for consumers
• Internal explainers about complex systems

Variables

Variable	Description	Examples
complex_content	The text to simplify	A technical spec, a policy document section, a medical consent form, a legal clause
target_reading_level	The literacy level to aim for	"8th grade", "non-specialist professional", "patient with no medical background", "general public"
audience_background	What the audience already knows	"Patients who understand what a clinical trial is but have no statistics training", "Employees who know the product but not the engineering"

Tips & Variations

• Use the nuance flags as a checklist — Before publishing, go through each flagged tradeoff and decide: is the simpler version accurate enough for this context? Some nuance should be restored. Some should stay out.
• Run the comprehension check — Share the check questions with an actual member of the target audience. If they can answer them from the simplified text, you’re done. If not, the text needs another pass.
• Preserve structure alongside content — Add “Use numbered steps for procedural content and bullet lists for options” to shape the format for instructional writing.
• Layer complexity back in — After simplifying, follow up with: “Now add back the two most important nuances the audience absolutely needs, in the simplest language possible.” This helps find the minimum viable precision.
• Multi-audience versions — Run the prompt three times with different audience backgrounds to produce versions for different reader groups. Useful for documentation with layered audiences (patient + caregiver + clinician).

Example Output

Original (technical): “Participants randomized to the intervention arm will receive weight-adjusted subcutaneous dosing of the study compound at 28-day intervals for a 52-week treatment period, with a 12-week safety follow-up post-completion.”

Simplified (patient-level): “If you are in the treatment group, you will get an injection under your skin once a month for one year. The dose will be based on your weight. After the year of treatment, we will check in with you for three more months to make sure you are doing well.”

Nuance flag: [weight-adjusted dosing] → [based on your weight] — The simplified version does not convey that dosing is calculated by a formula, which patients in some trials need to understand for safety reasons. Consider restoring: “The dose your doctor gives you will be calculated specifically for your body weight.”