Writing in Plain Language

It’s great to be in the nation’s capitol and to read that Congress thinks plain language is important. On October 11, 2011, the Plain Writing Act of 2010 became fully in force. Congress passed the Act to require agencies to draft all new forms, publications, and publicly distributed documents in easy-to-understand, everyday English. The Act defines plain writing as “writing that is clear, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices appropriate to the subject or field and intended audience.” Also noteworthy, on January 18, 2012, Congressman Bruce Braley introduced the Plain Regulations Act of 2012, which would require agencies to draft all new and substantially revised regulations in plain English.

This link provides the name of each federal agency’s designated plain-language expert and a URL to the agency’s plan describing how it intends to start using plain language. Since tomorrow I start work at the Federal Communications Commission, here I borrow from the FCC’s Plain Language Workbook: Five Steps to Clear, Effective Communications for the Federal Communications Commission.

Following are the FCC’s five plain-language attributes:

1.     Concise word use

2.     The active voice

3.     Cohesion

4.     Reader-focus

5.     Tone

Each attribute has more specific guidance, which I briefly summarize below. But before jumping in to these attributes, consider just two simple principles to vastly improve your writing or speaking today.

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Two Words or Phrases You Should Never Use in Writing or Speaking

(1)            and/or 

This term causes more problems than it solves (because it solves none). While and/or commonly means “the one or the other or both,” half the time and/or actually means and, and half the time and/or actually means or. See Bryan A. Garner, Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage 57–58 (3d ed. 2011); Bryan A. Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English 112–13 (2001).

(2)            prior to and subsequent to

These two-word substitutes for the words before and after just won't seem to go away. The phrase prior to conveys nothing more precise than the word before, and the phrase subsequent to conveys nothing more precise than the word after.

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And here are the FCC’s five plain-language attributes in a bit more detail:

I.            Concise Word Use

• Avoid general-specific combinations
• Avoid negative structures
• Avoid little extra words
• Avoid repeated words
• Avoid twin words
• Avoid obvious information

II.            The Active Voice

• Three reasons to avoid passive voice:

1.    the actor and the action get separated

2.    the actor gets eliminated

3.    the actor becomes a hidden verb*

*hidden verbs are also called nominalizations — provide testimony is a nominalization of testify.

III.            Cohesion

• Subject lines, headers, and titles should help the reader to find information quickly.

IV.            Reader-Focus

• Write with the reader’s point of view in mind.
• Consider the information’s position within the piece and whether it helps the piece as a whole to flow logically.
• Use the second-person “you.”
• Write so you are showing (not telling) your message to the reader.
• Use jargon-free language.

V.            Tone

• Following are three tones to be aware of:

1.    Hyper-formal tone should never be used in FCC writing.

2.    Formal tone is used in most FCC documents.

3.    Informal tone is good for emails, group discussion, and blog posts.

• These six elements of style also improve tone:

1.    Don’t abbreviate words unless they are common everywhere.

2.    Don’t overuse acronyms and initialisms; spell out the whole word several times in a single document.

3.    Don’t use an ampersand (&) in place of the word and unless an ampersand is part of an entity’s name.

4.    Use contractions in all FCC writing except congressional documents or highly formal pieces.

5.    Use genderless language.

6.    Use Ms. for all women unless they have a title.