Today's post is all about using plain English. I think you’ll agree that official documents can be confusing. To help, President Obama signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010 requiring that Federal agencies use "clear Government communication that the public can understand and use." Regardless of where you stand politically, I'm sure you'll agree, making sure wording can be understood by the general public is a good thing.
The Grammarly team decided to find out if Federal agencies have indeed started communicating in plain English. Here's what we learned:
- NASA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Treasury communicate the most clearly to the public.
- Top writing mistakes among Federal agencies include long sentences, passive voice, sentence fragments, redundant prepositions, dangling modifiers, redundant phrases, and more.
This is the inforgraphic they made with the results:
Whilst most of you probably aren't writing Government communications, have you thought about whether or not your writing can be easily understood by your readers? Are you writing clearly? This applies to both your books, and your marketing.
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Jo Linsdell
Use Plain English Please
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