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US Government War Against Jargon in Business & Legal Documents

Many US Government agencies are preparing to fight the long-running battle to get federal employees to use simple, direct language when communicating with the public.

Members for numerous US agencies, sponsored by the Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN), recently met to discuss how to teach employees to communicate clearly, and translate acronyms and technical terms into concepts that the public can understand.

PLAIN, a government-wide group of volunteers, aim to improve communications so citizens will have more trust in the Government.

"People should be able to understand what [government employees] write the first time they read it, especially materials that tell people how to obtain benefits or comply with requirements," their website states.

Attorney demands "plain English" version of legal questions

Attorney James Gibbons is alleging the single November 2001 ballot question forced voters to approve or reject both questions, instead of giving voters the chance to vote for one or the other.

He claims voters were confused by the placement of the questions.

Some voters thought the study commission simply was going to study the reduction of city council and voting by district rather than actually implementing such a change.

 

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Gibbons alleges that the election code was violated since a "plain English" version of the question was not published prior to the election.

Due to the alleged errors, he has asked the county court to declare the results of the public question null and void.

Undersecretary of Education Gene Hickok said how decided to join the crusade against convoluted language, when then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge appointed him the state’s education secretary.

"What we write and how well we write it will be a major factor in sustaining public interest and involving parents, educators, local officials and other interested parties in our efforts."

The memo encourages staff to keep sentences, paragraphs and sections short;

  • separate sections with headings that accurately reflect the content in the section
  • avoid insider, legalistic and bureaucratic language
  • include only relevant information, while making nonessential information available to readers on request
  • avoid using outdated documents as templates

Hickok used to keep a "jargon jar" in his office and fine staff $1 every time they used overly complex and technical language in his office. Hickok has outlined tips to help staff write clear documents about department policies.

Why George Bush is the Role Model Plain-Speaker

The US government needs more employees like President George W. Bush

To be more precise, it needs people who can resist the urge to pepper government documents with jargon.

This message comes from the Plain Language Action & Information Network (Plain), an organization committed to removing "doublespeak" in government documents.

Plain Language Action & Information Network, recently warned government employees about the pitfalls of writing in convoluted English.

Tommy Thompson, secretary of health and human services said that for many Americans the red tape of government regulations is unclear, complicated and time consuming.

One of the challenges is the number of lawyers involved in crafting rules and regulations. "Lawyers have been writing two words instead of one since the Norman Conquest," says Mark Painter, an Ohio appeals court judge.

US government agencies are making progress; many have introduced training programs to help employees communicate clearly.

Newly appointed federal judges now get training in crafting coherent and clear opinions, says Carol Wilson of Plain Language Association International.

Joanne Locke, of the Food and Drug Administration, pointed out that Sweden has officially appointed language experts to ensure that laws are easy to understand; no law is passed without their approval.

The European Commission published a booklet, "Fight the Fog", that encourages Commission staff to write clearly. It contains guidelines on avoiding abstract writing and using too many nouns

George Bush issues faith-based organizations in Plain English

President Bush plans to take steps to end "a pattern of discrimination" against faith-based and community charities that get federal grants. He issued an executive order, effective immediately, directing federal agencies to give equal treatment to social-service groups with religious affiliations.

The President said, "we should focus on the results you deliver."

Mr. Bush also said that federal booklets would soon be issued to faith-based organizations explaining "in plain English" how they could apply and qualify for aid without running afoul of church-state barriers.

Richard Gere Wins Foot in Mouth award

Richard Gere beat off all competition to win the Plain English Campaign's Foot in Mouth award.

This is what he said: "I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe and somebody said I was a snake, I'd think 'No, actually I am a giraffe.''

Among the 10 winners of the Golden Bull awards for poor writing include:

  • Halifax Insurance
  • Marconi
  • Scottish Parliament
  • Waitrose

Another Golden Bull winners described the laying a brick in a wall as:

"..to install a component into the structural fabric".

The Scottish Parliament's winning effort (Paragraph 59 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (2002), Part 5) reads:

"The Scottish Ministers may by order amend subsection (1) of section 57 or paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (2) of section 58 so as to substitute for the number of years for the time being mentioned in the provision in question such other number of years (not being a number which exceeds that being mentioned in the provision as originally enacted) as may be specified in the order."

Campaign spokesman John Lister said the Golden Bulls were meant to be lighthearted. "These are simply the most ludicrous examples we have found during the year. Stodgy, long-winded writing is still wasting time and money and cheating people of the chance to make an informed decision."

Sage Research highlight need for better User Guides

Recent research from Sage Research concluded that:

"Customers want user manuals written in plain English and training manuals targeted to different roles in the organization, a technical and non-technical training manual rather than one size fits all," Neal says. At the same time, Web-based training resources are not easy to navigate and the quality and understandability isn't up to what they need

The conclusions of the panel were that

  1. CRM vendors can greatly improve end-user training, and
  2. True integration costs with enterprise networks can greatly affect return on investment (ROI) for CRM implementations.

Sage research director Chris Neal says panelists face a "train the trainers" problem. That is, vendors come in and train a few in-house people whose job it becomes to train the rest of the staff. Beyond the decay that occurs when passing training downstream, CRM usage roles vary greatly between say, sales and customer support and service.

Read the full transcript at www.sageresearch.com/CRM.html

UK Social Security Agency Write Guides in Plain English

A to Z Guides to public services published by the UK Social Security Agency won a national award from the Plain English Campaign with their ‘Inside Write’ program.

The award was presented to staff in recognition of their user-friendly way of communicating information about the benefits available to the public and how to claim them.

The Chief Executive of the Social Security Agency, Chris Thompson, said:

"Our Agency is very proud of this achievement. It is an important recognition of the improvement in the quality of our customer information. Public services can only really be fully accessed if the people know about them."

The Social Security Agency has been a member of the Plain English Campaign since 2002.

'Plain English' is defined as language that the intended audience can understand and act upon from a single reading. The A-Z guides can be read on the Social Security Agency website at www.ssani.gov.uk

Thomas Jefferson Complaints about Poor English

Popular complaint about legal language has a long history.

Thomas Jefferson, the American architect and lawyer, best remembered for his contribution to the US Declaration of Independence complained in a letter to Joseph Cabell written in 1817 about lawyers who had a habit of:

"making every other word a ‘said’ or ‘aforesaid’ and saying everything two or three times, so that nobody but we of the craft can untwist the diction and find out what it means."

Letters of Thomas Jefferson, pages 417-8, (1907)

Western Mail Best Plain Speaking Newspaper

The Western Mail won the award for the most plain-speaking regional newspaper in the prestigious Plain English Awards.

There are six categories in the media section, with winners being chosen for both the clarity of their reporting and the work they do to expose gobbledygook.

They said of the Welsh newspaper: "As one of the biggest regional newspapers, the Western Mail staff must have a tough job keeping close to their readers.

"They achieve this by remembering the golden rule of plain English journalism: news is about people as much as events and issues.

Improved Communication in Healthcare making a difference

The National Institutes of Health has made strides in improving communications, said Ann Brewer, the agency’s plain language coordinator.

In Healthcare, it is critical communicate to the public and the scientific community in a clear, understandable way.

To highlight the importance of effective communication, the National Institutes of Health started a plain language award program in 1999.

Employees can enter writing samples and communications projects in the competition. In the three years awards have been made, the number of entries has increased to over 250 this year from 150 last year.

Previous winners included pamphlets on preventing complications of diabetes and a Web site to keep patients informed on the latest medical research.

Money awaits small firms with well-written proposals

A University of Pittsburgh workshop that recently discussed research funding for small businesses, pointed out the need for accountants to write documents in clear, plain English.

The workshop stated that accountants should use

"Full, clear, plain English disclosure of important financial information by reputable outside auditors who carry enough authority to certify a company's financial without caving in to undue pressure from its management will become the new standard."

Plain English Training for Lawyers

Professor Richard Wydick classic book on legal writing, Plain English for Lawyers starts with a catalogue of the problematic characteristics of legal writing:

"We lawyers do not write plain English. We use eight words to say what could be said in two. We use arcane phrases to express commonplace ideas. Seeking to be precise, we become redundant. Seeking to be cautious, we become verbose. Our sentences twist on, phrase within clause within clause, glazing the eyes and numbing the minds of our readers."

He adds that it is as if lawyers use all their expertise to inflict optimal damage on the basic rules of grammar. Yet it must be counter-intuitive to suggest that legal writing should do anything but follow the basic laws of grammar.

Richard Wydick insists that "good legal writing should not differ, without good reason, from ordinary, well-written English." So how have we ended up with a situation in which disregard of these basic rules qualifies as erudition?


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