Using the Web means you can get to the source of so much information, quickly. But when you get to a site, do you often wonder what in the world they’re talking about and why they couldn’t just write a one sentence explanation of purpose? Under all their techno speak, HR babble, or manufacto-jargon, are they even sure what they want to say? This also goes for emails, reports memos and proposals – where people over-complicate the delivery, in an (often failed) attempt to lend legitimacy to their message.
Thankfully, there’s a movement in business, government, law and academia toward easily understandable documents that can be read, understood and acted upon by all of us. With no re-reading of sections, flipping to definitions, or making wild assumptions that cost money and embarrassment if the reader (understandably) happens to get the message wrong.
Today I spoke to Thom Haller, who will, as of March 1, become the next Director of the Center for Plain Language, an advocacy organization that supports plain language use, through education, establishment of best practices, and training. They’re a non-profit serving business, academia and government that grew, as a separate organization, out of US Federal Government plain language initiatives. (It seems the government has simplified something, but please tell me the forms and instructions I regularly struggle through aren’t on the “completed" list!) Give us clarity – May this new organization that serves business add many industrious members quickly!
Employee annoyance and exasperation aside, the dollar impact of clear writing is huge. Rewrites and simplification resulted in a $400,000 yearly savings for Fed Ex ground operations manuals and a $3.5 million annual savings for Alberta Agriculture, from the revision of 92 forms. Doing some quick math, it’s easy to see that hiring a Director of Plain Language would be a boon for many companies – especially the ones whose first instinct would be to call the position “Advocate for Elucidation of Corporate Internal and External Documentation”.
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