http://plainlanguage.com/Bafflegab%20rap.pdf

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=158634

Then you can join a subgroup:

• Writing about Law for the Public
Plain language applied to writing about law for the public
• Research Reports and Discussions
Research on subjects of interest to plain language supporters.

• Health Literacy
Health literacy is the ability to access, understand and act on information for health.

• Plain Language Training
Specifically for people who design or deliver training in how to communicate in plain language.

• International Plain Language Day

ClearMark Awards honor the best clear communication in government, academia, and the private sector. Let your clear communication be a model for other organizations!

Learn how to submit for a ClearMark Award from the Center for Plain Language at http://centerforplainlanguage.org/awards/award-nominations/

This year local event organizers will have another resource: pre-recorded, online presentations of interest to the public, clients, other plain language writers and editors or consultants. After IPLDay, the presentations will be available to the public on YouTube or Slideshare.

Get more detail at the new blog: http://iplday.wordpress.com/2012-online-program/online-program/

Let me tell you what my wishes are for the future and why. This is my call:
1. Plain language guidelines taught in high school
2. Plain language included all college and university writing courses
3. Cognitive psychology and neuroscience discoveries incorporated in plain language
4. Standards of plain language set by plain language professionals not legislators

Plain language guidelines taught in high school
In Canada, some provinces are turning the focus of high school English courses from literature to writing. Students learn to write business reports and correspondence, executive summaries, and other documents typical of the modern workplace. And from the start, the basic plain language guidelines have been incorporated. Those are the sort of writing suggestions you see published as 10 Tips to Write Plain English. At minimum, these are guidelines to modern writing and should be taught in high schools alongside advice on considering the audience and using appropriate formats and structures.

Plain language included in all college and university writing courses
Plain language writing processes and style guidelines need to be included in the teaching of all business and professional writing. Think of it as “Plain Language Across the Curriculum”. Professional development programs at the graduate level and in continuing professional education need to teach plain language in all communication modes, including writing and speech-making. Plain language is the most persuasive language.

I gathered 18 international contributors to write Plain Language in Plain English with this in mind.

Cognitive psychology and neuroscience discoveries applied
Plain language process and guidelines have developed in stages from what the then-current level of knowledge provided:
1. Advancing classical rhetoric
2. Promoting modern writing style
3. Incorporating the tools of user-testing
4. Scientific research into subjects like typology or brain functions

But scientific research has expanded so much in the last 20 years that plain language practitioners could not keep up. Money for research is needed to ensure that plain language procedures take advantage of current scientific discoveries. The most significant of these seem to be in the new area of study: cognitive fluency.

Standards of plain language set by professionals based on science
Early U.S. legislation in the consumer field set specific guidelines for readability and typography in consumer contracts. More recent legislation, even internationally, has set more general guidelines, such as saying that documents must be understandable to the intended readers.

With the newly discovered information about how the brain processes information through reading, we can be more specific in the guidelines that are set. I am hoping that academics and scientists can produce practical guidelines for communicating effectively with the person with average abilities.

Legal requirements should be based on provable facts.

Personally, I can’t wait for International Plain Language Day October 13, 2012

Brought to you by MSW@USC Masters in Social Work

Part One

Part Two

PartThree

I agree that it is the focus on the reader that makes the difference between plain language and other writing.

I hire writers, as part of my job, for many different kinds of government writing. Not all good writers are plain language writers. The main differences are the focus on the reader that a plain language writer must have and the breadth of knowledge of the many aspects of communication that they must bring.

A good writer tries to please the client, giving them what they ask for, such as the right professional or promotional tone and approach, accurate content, excellent grammar and style.

A plain language writer tries to please the reader, giving the client what they need to reach their communication goal.

That may look much different than what the client asks for or expects, and it may take much negotiation with the client to show them how and why the plain language version will meet their goals better than the document the client originally envisioned, taking into account what we know about literacy, reading levels, information design, reader behavior, rhetoric, and usability.

A subject-matter expert often knows their subject too well to be able to communicate clearly with a non-expert audience. They can’t forget what they know long enough to see the subject from their reader’s point of view. They often either want to say much more than the reader wants or needs for the current purpose, or assume that their specialist knowledge is general knowledge and fail to give sufficient context. They may know little about information design, yet may have firm ideas about what the document should look like. The plain language writer must lead the client to the best communications solution for the purpose, audience, and circumstances — which may not even be a written document.

What I look for in a plain language writer are

- the ability to see a subject with new eyes and from varying perspectives

- the ability to negotiate well with clients

- the ability to judge what is possible within a given set of time, budget, and personality constraints

- knowledge of the many components of communication that plain language entails, including information design, literacy levels, readability, and human nature

- the ability to write well and to explain their writing choices to the client

- the ability to deliver the best possible document for the target audience: one that is efficient, effective, and human-centered

A plain language writer need to be able to show the subject-matter expert why the choices they make about content, context, order, length, format, design, level of detail, comprehensiveness, accuracy — and all the rest of it — matter to the reader and how they affect what is read and what is taken away from that reading.

A plain language writer, therefore, needs wider technical skills (or a well-rounded team) and better people skills than writers of other styles, because this negotiating can easily go awry, especially if the client has strong opinions about writing style and many approval levels to get through, as is often the case in government. As well, budgets are often tight and timelines unreasonable, so the skill to know what is possible within current constraints is a must, as well as the judgement to know where to compromise — and where not to.

Looks like I am describing a consummate, professional communicator.

Plain language writing is a writing standard because it is so comprehensive — we try to consider everything, juggle multiple factors, weigh the risks and benefits of the choices before us, and deliver the best communication possible within the given circumstances. And we judge its worth by its results.

—

Diane MacGregor writes for a living and contributed a case study to Plain Language in Plain English.

Literacy – Use it or lose it

What’s different, I think, is our focus on making things easier for the readers, so they get exactly what they need in a way that requires minimum time and effort. Creating painless documents. And creating a positive experience, too. I guess we’re not focusing so much on the text in and by itself, as some other fields do; we’re focusing on how the text will be received and used by real people in the real lives, their real contexts. (Very few communicators, writers and editors seem to have that in mind!)

Other ideas:
- We’re aware that readers are real people. We take into account that they may not be experts in reading, or in English, or in the topic, and that they are probably very busy. We also know that their priorities may be different from ours; we put their needs first.

- So we strive to make texts that will give them what they need, when and how they need it, in a way that’s as quick, simple, as easy and effective as can be.

- I’d say plain language is a philosophy more than a writing technique. It’s about caring for the readers and respecting them. Making their lives easier. I think that’s unique to plain language.

- We deal with a wide range of documents and topics: all the functional, practical documents that adults need in their professional life and their daily life. (In other words, not stuff we read for fun, but things we have to read, for one reason or another.)

- Our work and its foundations are multidisciplinary. In our aim to create documents that work as well as possible for the readers, we use the knowledge and expertise from various fields that can tell us more about the readers, the texts, and how readers interact with texts: psychology, cognitive psychology, reading studies, usability, technical writing, graphic design, decision-making…

In short, the goal we’re pursuing is different, and it guides the choices we make as we write or revise documents.

Dominique