President Obama Signed Plain Writing Act of 2010
© Ugur Akinci
A new era has begun in the United States when President Obama signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010 on October 13, 2010.
According to this, all U.S. government agencies and offices are now mandated to create all their documents and communications in clear, uncomplicated English.
Here is the text of the final bill:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h946enr.txt.pdf
The Act reads: “The term ‘‘plain writing’’ writing that is clear, concise, well-organized, and follows best practices appropriate to the subject or field and audience.”
There is a deadline to shift to Plain Writing as well:
“Beginning not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, each agency shall use plain writing in every covered document of the agency that the agency issues or substantially revises.”
And the term “covered document” covers so much that I don’t know what it actually leaves out of its scope.
This is a good day for all technical communicators who are experts in clear, logical writing that is easy to read and easy to understand.
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I hope with you that this is a new era in government communications. Let us hope that, unlike much legislation that leads to unintended consequences, the results of requiring federal agencies to write in clear and concise language that is well organized will indeed be better communications. But if it leads instead to too much simplification, omitting details needed for clear and complete understanding, then it will have been a great disservice. Especially for technical description, we should much prefer too much information rather than too little. In any case, I hope this will help make Americans more aware of what government is trying to say and more eager to demand clarity and openness wherever there is confusion, a hint of condescension, or even the possibility of deception. I run the Honest Government blogs (at http://www.ConservativeWords.com) and have long encouraged federal agencies to use editing software in their document preparation (see http://www.StyleWriterForGovernment.com).
I tend to agree with your “especially for technical description, we should much prefer too much information rather than too little” observation but the real issue here is of course the QUALITY of the information rather than its quantity. Even when the info is just a sentence or two, if it’s not written in plain English then it might be as well not written at all.