News from the Center for Plain Language
Read today’s press release from the Center for Plain language about report cards for federal agencies one year after the Plain Writing Act regulations went into effect.
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Feds make better grades in 2015
The Center for Plain Language recently released final grades for US federal agencies. After completing a rigorous evaluation process, they concluded that Participation by agencies in the Center for Plain Language Federal Plain Language Report Card reached an all-time high: 23 agencies submitted materials for review, including all 15 Cabinet-level departments. Compliance scores increased overall: Eight…
Lead your reader through your content with transitions
Readers understand a message better when writers use explicit signals of what they want readers to get out of a document. Transitions like “unfortunately” are one type of explicit signal. (Headings are another — see Think long-term and be kind to readers with well-formatted documents.) In fact, transitions are also sometimes called logical connectives. Maybe that makes…
The video tutorial on audience
Here (finally) is the tutorial on analyzing a workplace audience. I’ve been distracted for a few days, playing nurse for my 17- year-old son after oral surgery. Whew! More later . . . Related articles Pros don’t settle for platitudes about audience (proswrite.com)
What is the evidence of literacy decline caused by texting?
I’m working on a post about taboo words (that means swearing or profanity) that’s not ready for prime time — and recovering from the flu. In the meantime, I highly recommend today’s post over at Motivated Grammar. Gabe’s point is that, when people don’t actually understand how language works, they see decline and deterioration in language different…
The video tutorial on word choice
Because I have had to keep my administrative hat on a lot recently (I am working toward an August 1 deadline for a university report), it took a while to get the video tutorial on word choice complete. It was designed to help amateurs think about the choice of vocabulary in workplace documents thoughtfully, intentionally, and strategically….
Grades for content quality from federal agencies
Since 2010, the Center for Plain Language annually judges the quality of content produced by US government agencies. The results for 2017 are shown below. I love these report cards for several reasons but chief among them is that they use an evidence-based approach. On a shoestring budget. Most complaints about content quality are vague. But the…
