Occasionally you may hit a real difficulty when your plain language exposes something the original writer wanted to keep under wraps. A warranty, perhaps, or a consent form. If the writer insists on keeping important information unclear, you may have to cut your losses and back out of the work in order not to be complicit in the deceit. (And this situation does occasionally occur.)

Mixed readerships
If you are asked to produce a document which can be used by low-literacy readers and also by general readers, you will need to decide how to accomplish this. Trying to produce one version for everyone will probably mean it is too hard for low-literacy readers and maybe not detailed enough for others.

Executive summary or parallel text
A better way is to keep the original document but write a simple executive summary for lower-literacy readers. Or, create parallel text. In this, the original text is in one column, and beside this column is a second one with a simple, one- or two-sentence summary of each paragraph. Then people can read whichever they prefer. I can almost guarantee that the short, simple version will be read by everyone. Most of us get so much print, we are delighted to receive something so easy and short. Then, if we want more details, we can look at the longer version.

Instructions
When writing instructions, make sure they are thorough, in order and clear. Using numbered lists is a help if the instructions need to be done in sequence. This is how you heat a can of soup:

1. Open the can
2. Pour the soup into a pan
3. Put the pan on one of the burners on the stove
4. Turn on the burner

and so on.

If you are using a partial sentence followed by a list, it is better to repeat yourself each time. So, instead of saying:

Today, do you want to clean:
the bathroom
the lobby
the mud off your boots or
the kitchen counters?

it is clearer to repeat words which otherwise might be forgotten before the end of the list is reached.