“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead,” Mark Twain.
Writing clearly and concisely is a challenge for anyone, but it’s been an even bigger challenge for the federal government — they are plagued with the dreaded Gov-Speak.
But for the past two year’s they’ve been working hard to make their communications clearer.
The Center for Plain Language, a group that advocates for clear writing in government documents, released a scorecardthis week marking agency progress meeting requirements under the 2010 Plain Writing Act.
It’s their first review since agencies were required to create plans for cutting the “bureaucrat-ese” from their dealings with the public.
Dr. Annetta Cheek is the Chair at the Center for Plain Language. Dr. Cheek told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER the government’s made a lot of progress but…
The Center gave 12 government agencies two grades, for how well they followed the requirements of the Act, and how well they followed the “spirit” of the act. Ultimately, the Act asks government agencies to take steps to assure that they are communicating clearly with businesses, consumers and other stakeholders.
We want to know how your agency is doing? Can you understand gov speak?
You can also check out the Clear Mark Awards — The ClearMark Awards are given to the best plain language documents and web sites. They are judged by a panel of international experts, following a strict set of criteria. Revised documents were judged on not just the quality of the final document, but also the quality of improvement.