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…
When a business professional needs to influence other people to do something not obviously beneficial to them, the individual often writes a persuasive document. That’s why we have proposals, business plans, recommendation reports, white papers, etc. Because such documents present complex information, they are usually lengthy. But readers are busy! So writers need to provide their audience with a way…
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…
Yesterday, Time.com reported that Google ranked #1 for their privacy policy. The Center for Plain Language judged how well 7 big tech firms followed plain-language guidelines. A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find,…
The Center for Plain Language just released their 2014 Federal Plain Language Report Card. Highest grades went to Homeland Security, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Social Security Administration. In their white paper, they note that the quality of writing within the US federal government is improving. • 16 out of 22 departments improved over last year’s grades….
My colleague, Burcu, sent me the link to this recent Forbes piece by Liz Ryan on why people writing things like as per my message and it has come to my attention. It’s a good read so I tweeted about it. If you missed it, here's a good explanation from @forbes for why people write zombie…
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for Pros Write. My sabbatical, which allowed me to concentrate on research projects, distracted me from posting as much as in past years. (Did you hear that, Will?) Thanks for reading. Happy New Year! Here’s an excerpt: The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year….
In the spirit of the holidays, I’m sharing this infographic from Oxford Dictionaries. Thanks for reading Pros Write, and peace (in whatever language you prefer) to you all!
I think so. At least this email from the lead writer at Pinterest to all company employees supports the connection. It is too good not to share. (See my series on what plain language is for background.) Because of my current research on workplace writing quality, I’ve been thinking about how to capture the qualities of organizations…
Calling all word nerds! For some Friday fun, try the Macmillan Red Words Game, which tests your awareness of English word frequency. It’s not as easy as you might think. After a couple of tries, my highest score was 195. Can you beat it? Along the same lines, Roberto Trotta has written an interesting book. From the…