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==United Kingdom==
==United Kingdom==
In 1946, writer [[George Orwell]] wrote an impassioned essay, "[[Politics and the English Language]]", criticizing what he saw as the dangers of "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary [[written English]] – particularly in politics where ''pacification'' can be used to mean "...defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets...".
In 1946, writer [[George Orwell]] wrote an impassioned essay, "[[Politics and the English Language]]", criticising what he saw as the dangers of "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary [[written English]] – particularly in politics where ''pacification'' can be used to mean "...defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets...".


Two years later [[Ernest Gowers|Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers]], a distinguished civil servant, was asked by [[HM Treasury]] to provide a guide to officials on avoiding pompous and over-elaborate writing. He wrote:
Two years later [[Ernest Gowers|Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers]], a distinguished civil servant, was asked by [[HM Treasury]] to provide a guide to officials on avoiding pompous and over-elaborate writing. He wrote:

Revision as of 11:33, 16 October 2011

Plain English (sometimes referred to more broadly as plain language) is a generic term for communication styles that emphasise clarity, brevity and the avoidance of technical language – particularly in relation to official government communication, including laws.

The intention is to write in a manner that is easily understood by the target audience: appropriate to their reading skills and knowledge, clear and direct, free of cliché and unnecessary jargon.

United Kingdom

In 1946, writer George Orwell wrote an impassioned essay, "Politics and the English Language", criticising what he saw as the dangers of "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English – particularly in politics where pacification can be used to mean "...defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets...".

Two years later Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers, a distinguished civil servant, was asked by HM Treasury to provide a guide to officials on avoiding pompous and over-elaborate writing. He wrote:

Writing is an instrument for conveying ideas from one mind to another; the writer's job is to make his reader apprehend his meaning readily and precisely.[1]

Gowers' guide was published as a slim paperback Plain Words, a guide to the use of English in 1948, followed by a sequel The ABC of Plain Words in 1951 and, in 1954, a hardback book combining the best of both, The Complete Plain Words – which has never been out of print since.

Gower himself argued that legal English was a special case, saying that legal drafting:

...is a science, not an art; it lies in the province of mathematics rather than of literature, and its practice needs long apprenticeship. It is prudently left to a specialised legal branch of the Service. The only concern of the ordinary official is to learn to understand it, to act as interpreter of it to ordinary people, and to be careful not to let his own style of writing be tainted by it...[2]

However, there is a trend toward plainer language in legal documents, and in fact the 1999 "Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts" regulations mandate "plain and intelligible" language.[3][4]

An inquiry into the 2005 London bombings recommended that emergency services should always use plain English. It found that verbosity can lead to misunderstandings that could cost lives.[5]

United States

In the US the plain language movement in government communication started in the 1970s. The Paperwork Reduction Act was introduced in 1976,[6][7] and in 1978 President Carter issued Executive Orders intended to make government regulations "cost-effective and easy-to-understand by those who were required to comply with them."[8][7]

Many agencies now have long-standing policies mandating plain language,[9] and in 2010 this was made a federal requirement with the Plain Writing Act.[10][9][11]

In legal writing, the late Professor David Mellinkoff of the UCLA School of Law is widely credited with singlehandedly launching the plain English movement in American law with the 1963 publication of The Language of the Law.[12][13] In 1979, Richard Wydick published Plain English for Lawyers.

Plain English writing style is now a legal duty for companies registering securities under the Securities Act of 1933, due to rules the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted in 1998.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ Gowers, Ernest. "Prologue". The Complete Plain Words.
  2. ^ Gowers, Ernest. "A digression on legal English". The Complete Plain Words.
  3. ^ "What is an unfair term?". The Office of Fair Trading. Retrieved 6 August 2011. A term is open to challenge if it could put the consumer at a disadvantage because he or she is not clear about its meaning – even if its meaning could be worked out by a lawyer.
  4. ^ "High Court rules against Foxtons". BBC News. 10 July 2009.
  5. ^ Gardham, Duncan (10 March 2011). "7/7 inquests: emergency services should use plain English". The Telegraph. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
  6. ^ Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
  7. ^ a b "Background: Plain Writing Legislative History, 2007-2010", 2010, Irwin Berent, Plain Writing Association
  8. ^ Locke, Joanne (2004). "A history of plain language in the United States Government". PlainLanguage.gov. Plain Language Action and Information Network.
  9. ^ a b "Plain Writing Act of 2010: Plain Language in Federal Agencies", plainlanguage.gov
  10. ^ "Obama Signs 'Plain Writing' Law", ABC.com
  11. ^ "111th Congress: Plain Writing Legislative History, 2007-2010", 2010, Irwin Berent, Plain Writing Association
  12. ^ "David Mellinkoff; Attorney Advocated Plain English", LA Times
  13. ^ Douglas Martin, "David Mellinkoff, 85, Enemy of Legalese", New York Times, 16 January 2000.
  14. ^ Sec. Act Rel. 33-7380 (1997).

Bibliography

  • Cutts, Martin (1996). The Plain English Guide. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860049-6
  • Rook, Fern (1992). Slaying the English Jargon. Society for Technical Communication, ISBN 0-914548-71-9
  • Williams, Joseph M. (1995). Style, Toward Clarity and Grace. University Of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-89915-2
  • Wydick, Richard C. (1979). Plain English for Lawyers. Carolina Academic Press, ISBN 1-59460-151-8 (paperback 5th ed., 2005)

External links

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