The principles may be summarized as follows: respect for grammar, correct spelling, accuracy in choice of words, logical choices in vocabulary, syntax and structures, conciseness or consistency. As far as reader-friendliness, most writers are in agreement on the goal but some, in both cultures, find it hard to see the law but as a formal system that is not designed for the layperson. There lies the original contribution of the Plain Language movement: the promotion of clarity through the clever use of all the resources of the language and of the technology to ensure optimal access to communications, whether legal, technical, or general.

However, due to recent efforts to provide good indexing, hypertexting, tables of contents or numbering, for instance, the design and layout of the law have also evolved as is best illustrated by the Australian tax legislation. With respect to the formatting of legal texts, the introduction of computers has brought a greater standardization of spelling and typography, and the creation of easy-to-use templates. Research done on appropriate colour use, pictograms and highlighting techniques to improve readability leads to converging results, both in English and French. Canadian writers and lawyers may very well agree on the means to attain clarity, be it through vocabulary, syntax, structure or design, as proposed by the Plain Language movement, while noting the constraints resulting from different linguistic or legal systems.

Although the abovementioned principles do exist in the French culture, there has not been a deliberate movement or will to incorporate them in a framework similar in its scope to the Plain Language model, in spite of some attempts made in the late 60's and later. Some academics in France had tackled the issue of clarity in communications, in their search for "readability", namely François Richaudeau and André Timbal-Duclos . They respectively had examined teaching manuals and journalism, with a view to promote efficiency and clarity in the written language. Their definition of clarity, although limited to their areas of work (education and medias), is still considered valid by French communications teachers. According to a French definition of clarity by Richaudeau, for a text to be readable, it must be actually read, it must be understood and it must be easy to memorize. "Readable" also means "easy", "clear", "transparent" as well as "intelligible", "understandable". The key words used to describe the search for clarity in Plain French are: « lisibilité », « style clair et simple », « langage clair », « langage courant » or « langue courante » .

The above works did not refer to the general issue of legal and administrative writing. Some publications within the French civil service made mention of the English research on clarity but they did not have a great deal of impact on public documents and the need to simplify, amongst others, legislation, court decisions and notarized deeds. The link between the academic world and the practical applications of the research and its policy implications was never made officially in France, until recently, except for some historical stance of Napoleon on French law and limited initiatives. In Quebec, the situation was about the same as the universities have generally had little impact on government or private sector writing. The grass-roots movement that expressed an interest in Plain French was moved by literacy and adult education concerns which reduced the scope of any intervention. The closest the French speaking population came to the "Rudolf Flesch culture" was through the introduction of the spell checking software and the Fog Index assessment scale in Word 2000, some innovations that may not be all that useful in the French context.