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}}

Return exactly:
1) Audience fit check
   - what the audience likely already understands
   - what surrounding context is missing if the excerpt is too thin
2) Simplified version
   - rewrite for the specified audience and reading level
3) Glossary of unavoidable terms
   - only terms that genuinely need to remain
4) Nuance flags
   - original nuance
   - how it was simplified
   - what might need restoring if precision matters
5) Comprehension check questions
   - three questions a reader should be able to answer after reading

Rules:
- Write for the specific audience, not a generic "general reader."
- Simplify the language, not the core idea.
- Flag every place where a simpler framing may become technically contestable.
- If the reading level is too low to stay accurate, say so and explain the minimum realistic level.
- If `complex_content` is only a fragment, say what adjacent context would improve the rewrite.
- Preserve source-backed facts and say when subject-matter review is still needed before publication.

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, ideally with enough surrounding context to preserve meaning	a technical spec section, a policy document excerpt, a medical consent form, a legal clause
target_reading_level	The literacy level or communication standard to aim for	"8th grade", "non-specialist professional", "patient with no medical background", "general public"
audience_background	What the audience already knows and what they do not	"Patients who understand what a clinical trial is but have no statistics training", "Employees who know the product but not the engineering"

Tips & Variations

• Give the model the audience context as seriously as the source text. Weak audience framing is one of the fastest ways to get bland or misleading simplifications.
• If the source is procedural, add a format instruction like “use numbered steps” so the simplification improves structure as well as wording.
• Use the nuance flags as a publishing checklist. They show where plain language may have trimmed something important.
• If the first pass is still too abstract, rerun with one real example you want preserved in the explanation.
• For regulated or high-stakes content, keep the approved source text beside the prompt and treat the output as a rewrite draft, not the final authority.

Example Output

Audience fit check: The excerpt assumes the reader already understands trial-group assignment and follow-up periods. If that is not true, add one sentence of context before the simplified version.

Simplified: “If you are in the treatment group, you will get an injection under your skin once a month for one year. The amount you receive will depend on your weight. After that year, we will keep checking on you for three more months to make sure you are doing well.”

Nuance flag: [weight-adjusted dosing] → [depends on your weight] — this removes the formula-level detail, which may matter in higher-risk clinical settings.