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Plain English

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Plain English (or layman's terms) is a style of communication that uses easy to understand, plain language with an emphasis on clarity, brevity, and avoidance of overly complex vocabulary. It is commonly used in relation to official government or business communication. The goal is to write or speak in a way that is easily understood by the target audience. It is clear and straightforward, concise, free of clichés and needless technical jargon, and appropriate to the audience's developmental or educational level and their familiarity with the topic.

Etymology

The term derives from the 16th-century idiom, "in plain English", meaning "in clear, straightforward language".[1]

History

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 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."[2]

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. Gowers 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...[3]

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.[4][5] In the UK, Plain English Campaign has been campaigning since 1979, "against gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information. They have helped many government departments and other official organisations with their documents, reports and publications. They believe that everyone should have access to clear and concise information."[6] 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.[7]

Ireland

In Ireland, there is growing awareness of and interest in using plain English, particularly in the public sector. The Public Sector Reform Plan and the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Code advocate for the use of plain English in the public and financial sectors respectively. The Universal Design guidelines recently published by the National Standards Authority of Ireland includes plain English guidelines for energy suppliers. The main organisation promoting the use of plain English in Ireland is the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA). They host a popular plain English website.

United States

In the US the plain language movement in government communication started in the 1970s. The Paperwork Reduction Act was introduced in 1976.[8] 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."[9] Many agencies now have long-standing policies mandating plain language[10] and in 2010 this was made a federal requirement with the Plain Writing Act.[11][12]

In legal writing, David Mellinkoff a professor at 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.[13][14] In 1977, New York became the first state to pass legislation requiring plain English in consumer contracts and leases.[15] 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.[16]

See also

2

References

Citation footnotes

Click on the hyperlink to see the full citation.

  1. ^ Ammer 1997
  2. ^ Gowers 1954, "Prologue".
  3. ^ Gowers 1954, "Chapter 2".
  4. ^ OFT 1999: "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."
  5. ^ BBC News
  6. ^ PEUK
  7. ^ The Telegraph
  8. ^ Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
  9. ^ Locke 2004
  10. ^ Plain Writing Act of 2010
  11. ^ Siegel 2010
  12. ^ Berent 2010
  13. ^ Oliver 2000
  14. ^ Martin 2000
  15. ^ Moukad 1979
  16. ^ Sec. Act Rel. 33-7380 1997

Full citations

  • "A history of plain language in the United States Government". PlainLanguage.gov. Plain Language Action and Information Network. 1995. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013.
  • Ammer, Christine (1997). The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Berent, Irwin (2010). "Background: Plain Writing Legislative History, 2007-2010". Plain Writing Association. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Gardham, Duncan (10 March 2011). "7/7 inquests: emergency services should use plain English". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
  • Gowers, Ernest (1954). The Complete Plain Words. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • "High Court rules against Foxtons". BBC News. May 1, 2011. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
  • Martin, Douglas (16 January 2000). "David Mellinkoff, 85, Enemy of Legalese". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Mazur, Beth (May 2000). "Revisiting Plain Language". Technical Communication. 47 (2). Society for Technical Communication. Archived from the original on 29 March 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2013.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Oliver, Myrna (4 January 2000). "David Mellinkoff; Attorney Advocated Plain English". LA Times. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • "Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995". 1995. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013.
  • "Plain English Campaign". BBC News. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  • "Plain Writing Act of 2010: Plain Language in Federal Agencies". PlainLanguage.gov. Plain Language Action and Information Network. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  • Wallace, Ann D. (1997), "Securities Act Release no. 33-7380", Plain English Disclosure, proposing release (January 14, 1997) 62 FR 3512 (January 21, 1997), Africa-America-Institute, Annual Institute on Securities Regulation, SEC Division of Corporation Finance, ISSN 0195-5756
  • Siegel, Joel (17 October 2010). "Obama Signs 'Plain Writing' Law". ABC News. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • "What is an unfair term?". The Office of Fair Trading. May 1, 2011. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
  • Moukad, Rosemary (1979). "New York's Plain English Law". Fordham Urban Law Journal. 8 (2). The Berkeley Electronic Press. Article 7. Retrieved 30 July 2016.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

General references

  • 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. (2005) [1979], Plain English for Lawyers (paperback, 5th ed.), Carolina Academic Press, ISBN 1-59460-151-8
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