Plain Language Part I

1. Plain Language Part I Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011

2. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 What is Plain Language? • “Plain English is clear, straightforward expression, using only as many words as are necessary. It is language that avoids obscurity, inflated vocabulary and convoluted sentence construction. It is not baby talk, nor is it a simplified version of the English language. Writers of plain English let their audience concentrate on the message instead of being distracted by complicated language. They make sure that their audience understands the message easily.” • (From plainlanguage.gov.)

3. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Why is Plain Language Important? • “Plain language” is the current movement in government and business writing. • The plain-language movement arose as a reaction against the bureaucratic style. • Prose in the bureaucratic style is needlessly difficult to read, uses archaic words and phrases, and is generally inaccessible to the average citizen. • The movement away from bureaucratic style emerged in the 1970s. Plain language advocates argued that the large volume of inaccessibly bureaucratic documents produced by the federal government was not appropriate in a democratic society.

4. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Why is Plain Language Important? • Thus, plain-language reform began as an effort is to make government communication readable and understandable. • In the 70s and 90s, a series of executive orders mandating plain language in the federal government. • The Plain Writing Act of 2010, signed by President Obama, requires heads of federal agencies to use plain language in documents produced by their agencies. • According to the textbook, corporations have also embraced this communication style. • So what does plain language look like?

5. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Bureaucratic Style • Before we discuss the elements of plain language, let’s look at what it isn’t to give you a sense of what the plain language movement is struggling against. • The following is a “before and after” from plainlanguage.gov. • The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) published a quick reference document for boat operators “skippers” who are required to participate in training workshops put on by the NOAA.

6. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Before and After • Before: • Huh???

7. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Before and After • After: • What are the differences?

8. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 What are the Elements of Plain Language? • We are going to talk about the following elements of plain language: • Audience • Paragraphs • Sentences • Our discussion is from the textbook and borrows a good deal from the Federal Plain Language Guidelines. • A document published at plainlanguage.gov.

9. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Audience • Documents written in any context are usually directed toward one or more audience, whether real or imagined. • An audience may be one particular person or a group of people. • Your boss • A client • Accountants • A government agency • Identifying your audience and writing for that audience and their expectations will enhance clarity and increase your ability to be persuasive. • Decisions about word choice and presentation of material will depend upon your audience.

10. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Audience • We have already talked about the role of audience in persuasive communication. • This concept applies to writing plain language. The idea is to write in a way that is clear and understandable to your audience. • What is understandable varies from one audience to another and requires adaptation. • One example of such adaptation is the use of jargon. • Jargon is “the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group.” (dictionary.com). • When you are writing in a plain-language style, is it ok to use jargon?

11. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Audience • Answer: it depends on your audience. • If you are writing to members of a group that has a unique jargon, they may expect to see it. If you are writing to the general public, you should seek to minimize it. • In fact, you may need to understand and use an audience’s jargon in order to establish your own credibility with a particular profession or other group. • Jargon can include • Technical vocabulary: “The company has installed two electrostatic precipitators.” • Terms of art: “consideration” has an everyday meaning and a completely different legal meaning. • Acronyms: LIFO, NPDES, etc. • Consider the following manual published by the EPA.

14. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Audience • An electrostatic precipitator is a piece of pollution-control equipment used in various industries. • It removes fine particles called particulate matter from an emission source (a smoke stack). Particulate matter is a form of air pollution. • Who is the likely audience for a training manual on industrial pollution control equipment? • Notice the document use of terms like “particulate matter,” “coal-fired utility boilers,” and “electrostatic precipitator” without any explanation. • If the audience is already familiar with these terms, is the previous page written in plain language for that audience? • Would an ordinary member of the public consider this document to be written in plain language?

15. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Paragraphs • The Guidelines list four elements of clear paragraphs: • Have a topic sentence. • Use transition words. • Write short paragraphs. • Cover only one topic in each paragraph. • We will talk about each of these in turn.

16. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Have a Topic Sentence • The Guidelines provide: “If you flood readers with details first, they become impatient and may resist hearing your message. A good topic sentence draws the audience into your paragraph.” • You have to be intentional about writing topic sentences because it is contrary to the way we think. • often we think about a topic in a haphazard way. • or we start with a conclusion, and then think of the reasons or necessary background information later. • The topic sentence is not your conclusion. Rather, it is the general subject-matter to be developed in the paragraph. The ultimate conclusion of the paragraph may be near the end.

17. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Have a Topic Sentence • Also, the Guidelines point out that readers want to be able to skim the document and gather the essential information. • Suspense, allusion, and metaphor are not valued in professional writing. • Clear topic sentences help your readers get the information they need quickly. • They also help the mind understand and process technical information.

18. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Topic Sentence Example

19. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Topic Sentence Example • Notice how the topic sentence orients us to the subject. • We are talking about B&E Concrete. They manufacture construction materials. That is the preliminary information we need to understand this paragraph concerning their operation. • The last sentence expresses a conclusion that is based on this topic and additional facts.

20. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Topic Sentence Example • If the conclusion were placed first, the paragraph would be harder to read. • It would introduce too much information to process: • the idea of this B&E company • feedstock reports • EPA enforcement • Also leading with the conclusion is frustrating for the reader. The reader must take it as true and read the entire paragraph. The reader has to maintain that trust until the end of the paragraph. • At that point, the reader might have to go back to the first sentence, read it again, and decide if your conclusion makes sense. • Don’t require your reader to put in this extra effort. Use a topic sentence that logically leads to a conclusion so the reader can see how you got there on the first reading.

21. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Use Transition Words • Often topic sentences serve another purpose: they link one paragraph to another. • Use transition words to show the reader you are linking ideas. • The Guidelines discuss the following types: • Pointing words: this, that, etc. • Echo links: words or phrases that repeat previous ideas. • Explicit connectives: therefore, accordingly, thus, etc. • Let’s look at how they are used in topic sentences.

22. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Use Transition Words

23. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Use Transition Words • Transition words also apply within paragraphs. • A well-constructed paragraph makes it easy to see the logical connection between ideas. • When dealing with “cause and effect,” organize sentences so that they develop the idea of the previous sentence and ultimately reach your conclusion. • Think of a paragraph as a chain of reasoning. • Use transition words that refer back to a previous idea or show that you are constructing a chain: this, that, therefore, etc. • Consider the example paragraph we have been using. Notice two things about: • The logical development of ideas based the prior sentences. • The use of transition words to signal this development.

24. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011

25. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Other Paragraph Styles • The text discusses a number of other typical paragraph styles. • Illustration • Comparison and contrast • Classification • Problem and solution • It is helpful to see how these systems of organizing paragraphs function. • Move away from constructing paragraphs randomly – by whatever thought pops into your head. • Move toward paragraphing intentionally.

26. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Other Paragraph Styles • Illustration paragraphs: Topic sentence states a claim. Subsequent sentences illustrate, showing that the claim is true. • What parts of the topic sentence are not supported by the body sentences?

27. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Other Paragraph Styles • Classification paragraphs: Topic sentence divides the topic into sub-parts or species. The body paragraphs explain and contrast each one. • Sometimes the topic sentence will list all the species.

28. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Other Paragraph Styles • Classification: • Notice how the paragraph is also organized on the basis of the size of each group, from largest to smallest. • Notice also the author prevented the paragraph from being to monotonous: First group is this; second group is this; third group is this. The third group is introduced by how they are treated.

29. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Write Short Paragraphs • Short paragraphs are easier to understand. • They ask readers to process the text is smaller, bite-sized chucks. • Accordingly, short paragraphs are more likely to actually be read. • Business and accounting messages can be interpreted as “boring.” Especially by non-accountants. • Thus, your subject-matter itself means you are starting with the distinct disadvantage in keeping an audience’s attention. • This problem is shared by those who must write for the government. • Look at the following example. Do you want to read this?

31. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Write Short Paragraphs • Me neither! • But the hard reality is that professional writers must deal with tedious and boring information. • And often they have to communicate it to an audience that is distracted, has a short attention span, or doesn’t care. • Use short paragraphs to make tedious writing less painful. • Short paragraphs can mean as few as two sentences, or sometimes even one. (Yes, one.) • Then use subject headings to break up the material into identifiable parts. • Notice the short paragraphs and subject headings in the following guidance document on public drinking water systems.

33. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Write Short Paragraphs • What would the same document look like without the short paragraphs and subject headings?

35. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Cover One Topic per Paragraph • The Guidelines also suggest limiting the subject-matter of paragraphs to one topic. • For example: • If you are discussing a procedure one must follow, make paragraphs based on each step. Don’t combine steps in one paragraph. It is easier for readers to skip a step. • If you are discussing a subject that has many alternatives, treat each alternative as a separate paragraph.

36. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Sentences • Let’s talk about five elements for writing clear sentences: • Write short sentences. • Keep subject, verb, and object close together. • Place the main idea before exceptions. • Avoid action-verb separation and character-subject separation • Be careful with the passive voice.

37. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Write Short Sentences • This seems like pretty straight-forward advice. But it is often more difficult than it sounds. • Professional writers have the challenge of conveying complicated information. • Suppose a writer is tasked with explaining a series of requirements. • This is made difficult by the fact that each requirement has different exceptions and other nuances. • Consider the following sentence that tries to cover too much ground.

38. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Write Short Sentences • That is one sentence. • Notice how hard it is to understand. What exactly is a public water supply system? • How could this sentence be split into several?

39. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Write Short Sentences • That is much easier to read. Use of bullet points also helps.

40. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Keep SVO Close • The subject, verb, and direct object of a sentence usually convey the essential meaning. • Other phrases and modifiers limit or qualify that essential meaning. • When writers insert modifying phrases between subject and verb, the sentence becomes harder to read. • “The investigator, after climbing to the roof-top of the refinery, observed at or near the time the suspect valve was opened an explosion.” • Consider the example given in the Guidelines:

41. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Keep SVO Close • What did they do to the sentence? • If all the modifying information is important to the writer, how could the sentence be reworked?

42. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Keep SVO Close • How could you rework the example about observing an explosion? • “The investigator, after climbing to the roof-top of the refinery, observed at or near the time the suspect valve was opened an explosion.” • Assume all the information is essential to the writer’s purpose.

43. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Place the Main Idea First • Technical information is often structured in a way that includes a general idea or requirement, and then a number of exceptions to that requirement. • Sentences that put the exceptions first are difficult to read. Such sentences ask you to keep in your mind an exception to something which has not yet been revealed. • Anytime you ask a reader to understand something you have not yet explained, you have lost clarity.

44. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Place the Main Idea First • About mid-way through the exceptions, you are probably wondering what this sentence is about. • This is a very common fault in policy and government writing. • A textbook example from Texas solid waste regulations:

45. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011

46. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Losing the essential meaning • We discussed this plain-language issue last week: • Avoid action-verb separation: the activity of the sentence is not the main verb. • Ex: Niles Eldrege and Stephen Jay Gould made the observation that the history of the book is marked by long periods of stability in format alternating with periods of radical change. • What is the main activity? The observation. • Niles Eldrege and Stephen Jay Gould observed that …

47. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Losing the essential meaning • We discussed this plain-language issue last week: • Avoid character-subject separation: The actor in the sentence is not stated as the subject. • Ex. Complaints by freshmen about the cafeteria food have been frequent. • Who is the actor? The freshmen. • Freshmen have frequently complained …

48. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Passive Voice • There is a great deal of confusion over the passive voice. • Some people vaguely remember that it is “bad.” • This is not true. It is an important tool in the English language. • Good writers know when to use it and when to avoid it.

49. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Passive Voice • What is the passive voice? • It is best explained by comparison to its alternative, the active voice. • Active voice: The subject performs the action. • Passive voice: The subject is acted upon. • In a passive sentence, the actor is either left unstated or is named in a “by” phrase after the main verb.

50. Advanced Business Communication Fall 2011 Passive Voice • Examples: • Active: The motorcyclist hit the pedestrian. • Passive: The pedestrian was hit by the motorcyclist. • Passive: The pedestrian was hit. • The motorcyclist is the actor in this sentence. It is the one doing the hitting. • In the first sentence, it is the subject. Thus, Active. • The subject of the second two sentences is the thing being acted upon, not the actor. Thus, passive.