Plain English: Why don't more people use it?
I’m working on an article about Plain English, so I’ve been talking to people in various government agencies who are helping promote it. One of the themes that keeps coming up in the conversations is the things that keep people and organizations from writing things in ordinary, everyday language, language that (according to PlainLanguage.gov) “your audience can understand the first time they read or hear it.”
It makes such perfect sense to craft your message so your audience gets it right off. So why are so many of the messages we read or hear government agencies or businesses larded with impenetrable gobbledygook? Annetta Cheek, the Plain Language Coordinator for the Federal Aviation Administration, told me some of the things she attributes it to, but she says a large part of it is inertia:
“Writing in plain language is not easy, particularly when you’ve been taught by the government or some other bureaucracy to write bureaucratically, then switching back to a plain, direct style is rather difficult. And another reason is we’re all strapped for time, and the easiest way to do a report is if you happen to have one from last year you just use that and update it, and so you inherit that document that may have started years ago.”
What about you and the writing you create? Are you stuck in a rut of using jargon or corporate speak because “that’s how it’s done here,” or because those are the types of documents you inherit? Don’t let inertia hold you back anymore. Start doing something now, today, to create Plain English communication for your audiences.
Roy Jacobsen
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