On October 13, 2010, President Obama signed into law the “United States Plain Writing Act of 2010.” Thirteen years after President Clinton issued his own “Plain Writing in Government” memorandum, the revised set of guidelines states that by July of this year all government agencies must simplify the often perplexing bureaucratic jargon (unintelligible talk, gibberish) used in documents produced for the American public. Banished are the grammatically long winded sentences, replaced with simpler English words, grammar and syntax (rules for the formation of grammatical sentences).
Plain style is writing with simple diction, simple sentence structure and clear word images. The three central values of the plain style are Clarity, Brevity, Sincerity.
The Executive Order for plain language states that all documents shall be accessible, consistent and above all else, easy to understand. In fact, the word ‘shall’ is a perfect example.
‘Shall’ (expressing obligation; must) will be replaced with the more friendly ‘should’ (expressing duty). Some other terms that are now off limits include ‘precluded’ (make impossible), ‘heretofore’ (formerly), ‘in accordance with’ (according to), and the severely rigid, ‘herein’ ( within; in here).
The goal is plain language or communication our audience can understand the first time they read or hear it. A danger is that language plain to one set of readers may not be plain to others.
Written material is in plain language if your audience can:
- Find what they need;
- Understand what they find; and
- Use what they find to meet their needs.
Language reform is nothing new. Mark Twain called for the abolishment of the “useless” letter C by replacing it with either K or S depending on the word pronunciation.
The formal style is characterized by a more advanced, scholarly vocabulary, longer and more complex sentences, long verb phrases, passive voice and the use of the impersonal ‘one’ rather than the personal ‘I’ or ‘you.’ Contractions,slang or humor are never used. The tone is polite but impersonal.
The formal style is intimidating and was meant to be. A person writing in an informal style was considered a commoner of a lower class. The formal style was the only way to communicate if you were to be considered a high class person and certainly if you were representing a high-class company, even if you knew the person well.
Over many generations, it became the norm in business, where writing was used to impress the credibility and professionalism of the author as well as convey information appropriately, accurately and efficiently in high class language.
Around 1970, there was a strong negative reaction to the restrictions and rules of formal writing, and it became nearly unacceptable to use. However, reaction swept back and by the early 1980s, there arose a truce between the plain and formal styles where each profession or industry chose its own style according to the relationships they had with their clients, customers and employees.
The legal profession opted for the formal style, while consumer advertising chose the plain writing style. Management in every industry tended to use an informal, conversational writing style with their employees, but workers tended to write to those at a higher business rank in the formal writing style to make a good impression.
The implications of the new Plain Writing Act of 2010 are very real. At least with government communications, we might actually be able to understand what the government is trying to say. Lawmakers will actually have to spell out provisions of a law, even if it is buried in thousands of pages of corrections and revisions.
An example is in the following sentence from the Department of Justice’s Claims for Damages due to International Terrorism. The ‘Before’ selection is in the formal style of writing; ‘After’ is the same instruction in plain writing style. Which do you prefer?
Before:
“The amount of expenses reimbursed to a claimant under this subpart shall be reduced by any amount that the claimant receives from a collateral source in connection with the same act of international terrorism. In cases in which a claimant receives reimbursement under this subpart for expenses that also will or may be reimbursed from another source, the claimant shall subrogate the United States to the claim for payment from the collateral source up to the amount for which the claimant was reimbursed under this subpart.”
After:
“If you get a payment from a collateral source, we will reduce our payment by the amount you get. If you get payments from us and from a collateral source for the same expenses, you must pay us back the amount we paid you.”
Another example is a Pentagon brownie recipe that goes on for 26 pages about “regulations promulgated (published) thereunder,” “flow rates of thermoplastics by extrusion plastometer” and a commandment that ingredients “shall be examined organoleptically (perceived by a sense organ; see, smell, touch, taste, feel).”
The new law takes effect in October 2011, when federal agencies must start writing plainly in all new or substantially (considerably) revised documents produced for the public.
The government will still be allowed to write nonsensically to itself.
We can live in hope that someday this new custom will move down to common business agreements and contracts like credit agreements and mortgages so we can actually understand them.
Some progress has been made, but we are a good distance from using plain style as the preferred method. The government can have some control over plain writing when it comes to social responsibility, but now by using formal writing, there are too many places to conceal terms favorable to the contract writer.
We can, however start communicating plainly in our own speech and writing.
Remember, our audience needs to find what they need, understand what they found, and use what they found. We can help them using the three precepts of plain writing: Clarity, Brevity and Sincerity.
Very enjoyed this! Well done!
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Thank you very much for that great article
Hell yes, i cannot do without cannot dispense with scratch a thing likely this but didnt have time, may i repost this Plain Writing
There’s a wealth of information here. I’ll be back again.
interesting stuff hope it works.