Martin Cutts obituary: The Yorkshireman who pioneered the Plain English movement
Martin Cutts, who has died at 71, was a Yorkshireman who pioneered the Plain English movement in the UK and abroad.
It was in 1979 that he conceived and co-founded the organisation and remained a partner until 1988.
He felt strongly that official documents should be written with the end-user in mind, and he produced reams of examples of legal, medical, government and commercial material written in complex, often archaic language that was intimidating and confusing to most readers.
Martin made it his life’s mission to bring significant change and he achieved significant inroads.
He authored The Oxford Guide to Plain English, now embedded in many university courses and widely-recognised in academic literature.
His other published works included Clarifying Eurolaw, The Plain English Lexicon and Lucid Law.
He went on to found the Plain Language Commission, where, until his death, he provided writing skills courses and editing services to the legal, medical and financial professions, as well as government and commercial bodies including the Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority and various European Commission departments.
In the 1990s he visited India four times for the British Council, giving courses and lectures on plain language, a first in the Indian subcontinent.
He was also on the advisory board for the Kimble Center for Legal Drafting at Cooley Law School, Michigan.
In 2013, Plain Language Association International awarded him its Christine Mowat Plain Language Achievement Award, an international award recognising an outstanding contribution to advancing plain language.
Born in 1954, Martin spent his early years in Scarborough and nearby Cayton and won a scholarship to Scarborough College.
His great love was cricket and in his final months he wrote and published his cricketing memoir, Club Cricketer Cuttsey.
He is survived by his wife, Ingrid; his brother, son, two stepchildren and their partners and children.