In 2006, the Associated Press gave national coverage to Washington State, which wants its employees to speak and write to the public in plain English.
Washington State has paid to send over 2,000 of them to plain-English classes. They learn to avoid legal jargon, acronyms, and pompous language.
The state believes that plain English will get its messages across to citizens and save costly time and misunderstandings. It has simplified the words and organization of its administrative laws. Its Department of Revenue has rewritten a tax letter more clearly and gained $800,000.
So what is plain English?
The AP article does not explain precisely how to simplify "gov-speak." But the U.S. government has an office of Plain English, with a helpful site at http://www.plainlanguage.gov/. President Clinton mandated plain English, as did the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the NIH (National Institutes of Health; see http://execsec.od.nih.gov/plainlang/index.html).
Linguists have found new ways to simplify and streamline documents. Those are the ones that I teach.
But anyone can start writing plainer English. Write to others as you wish they would write to you. And you can stop worrying about sentences that end with a preposition.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 8.8
Flesch Reading Ease 53.2 (ideal is 70).
No comments:
Post a Comment