Plain Language: An Introduction

Good technical writing adheres to the principles of plain language.

But what is plain language, and why as a technical writer should you care? For a moment, forget that in the future you will spend some of your time writing in the workplace.  Just be a human moving through life, living and working and playing, until one day you pick up a government document to read one of the following paragraphs:

Under 25 CFR §1.4(b), the Secretary of the Interior may in specific cases or in specific geographic areas, adopt or make applicable to off-reservation Indian lands all or any part of such laws, ordinances, codes, resolutions, rules or other regulations of the State and political subdivisions in which the land is located as the Secretary shall determine to be in the best interest of the Indian owner or owners in achieving the highest and best use of such property.

If a deponent fails to answer a question propounded, or a party upon whom a request is made under § 4.70, or a party on whom interrogatories are served fails to adequately respond or objects to the request, or any part thereof, or fails to permit inspection as requested, the discovering party may move the administrative law judge for an order compelling a response or inspection in accordance with the request. [1 Links to an external site.]

Even without knowing what plain language is, would you consider either of these paragraphs to be an example of it? Probably not.

And that’s one reason government language — from the text of tax forms to the speeches of politicians — generally falls into a category all on its own when one considers the worst examples of jargon. Bureaucratic language is notorious for being convoluted, and as a reasonably intelligent reader, when you face such writing and struggle to decipher it, do you ever wonder What are they trying to hide?

The simple indecipherability of such writing is precisely the reason that within the last 40 odd years, but even more within the last 10-15, movements have arisen all over the world — including the US, England, and Australia — that call for a kinder, simpler style in public documents: plain language.