You are here: Home » Commentary » The New “Washington-Speak” – English
The New “Washington-Speak” – English
Posted by: Linda Carbonell on May 19, 2011. 05-19-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell
Last fall, President Obama signed into law a bill to make Federal documents more understandable to ordinary citizens. Called The Plain Writing Act, it is particularly intended to make it easier for Americans to make sense of benefit applications, and hopefully their tax forms. It is limited to new or substantially revised documents for the time being and goes into effect in October. The financial services reform law contained a similar provision, to make mortgage paperwork more understandable. My mortgage document file is two inches thick.
The bad part is, the law exempted regulations, which really need a more comprehensive approach than just making the language more accessible.
By July, every agency in the government must have a senior manager making sure that everything is easily readable, part of its website explains the process and employee training is in place. Cass Sunstein, a White House administrator who provided guidance to the agencies in April said “It is important to emphasize that agencies should communicate with the public in a way that is clear, simple, meaningful and jargon-free.” In other words, if you work for the government, write plain English that your fifth grader could understand.
This could easily turn into a case of “they know not what they do.” If you have the opportunity to drive I-95 from anywhere south of Virginia to anywhere north of it, pay attention to the road signs. The further north one drives, the more complicated the language becomes. It is not a case of the signs being too difficult to understand. It’s just that the words have more syllables in them and there are more words in the sign. I’m not kidding. Those road signs seem to be testimony to the oft-reported difference in education between the two regions. I’ve never driven across the country, but my son-in-law complains about trying to understand road signs in some states. It has to do with phrases and word order that are understood locally, but not outside the area.
So, how will the agencies decide what is “clear, simple, meaningful and jargon-free” language? Even the jargon-free part isn’t always clear. What is jargon to one person is perfectly normal to others, especially these days when computers and the internet have created a whole alternative language. Are java and cookies a snack or computer terms?
The basic flaw in this law is the assumption that just because English is the primary language of the nation, we all speak the same English. Quick, what do up, down and over mean? If you’re a Vermonter they mean north, south and east or west, as in “over the mountain.” It’s a word usage specific to a place where all the mountain ranges run north-to-south with valleys in between. Those mountains even created dialect and accent differences between the valleys.
There is a phenomenon in the United Kingdom called “BBC English.” It refers to the disappearance of the very distinct regional accents of the island as a consequence of generational exposure to a standardized pronunciation on television. One can hear it in Prince William. He doesn’t have the veddy, veddy upper class accent of the older generation of royals. We don’t have as complete a unification of language usage in our television, and people tend to gravitate toward television shows that “sound” right. Sixty years of television has not produced a universal American English.
So, if a current advisory says “Before an individual can be determined eligible for Disaster Unemployment Assistance, it must be established that the individual is not eligible for regular unemployment insurance benefits,” are we absolutely certain that everyone will understand if it says, “You can get financial help from Disaster Unemployment Assistance if your job was lost or interrupted as a direct result of a major disaster declared by the president of the United States.” They managed, in making that “clearer” to leave out the part about not being already eligible for regular unemployment, but what the heck.
They really might want to consider hiring a few consultants from ad agencies. Perhaps, the guys who write for the AFLAC duck?
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You are here: Home » Commentary » The New “Washington-Speak” – English
The New “Washington-Speak” – English
05-19-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell
Last fall, President Obama signed into law a bill to make Federal documents more understandable to ordinary citizens. Called The Plain Writing Act, it is particularly intended to make it easier for Americans to make sense of benefit applications, and hopefully their tax forms. It is limited to new or substantially revised documents for the time being and goes into effect in October. The financial services reform law contained a similar provision, to make mortgage paperwork more understandable. My mortgage document file is two inches thick.
The bad part is, the law exempted regulations, which really need a more comprehensive approach than just making the language more accessible.
By July, every agency in the government must have a senior manager making sure that everything is easily readable, part of its website explains the process and employee training is in place. Cass Sunstein, a White House administrator who provided guidance to the agencies in April said “It is important to emphasize that agencies should communicate with the public in a way that is clear, simple, meaningful and jargon-free.” In other words, if you work for the government, write plain English that your fifth grader could understand.
This could easily turn into a case of “they know not what they do.” If you have the opportunity to drive I-95 from anywhere south of Virginia to anywhere north of it, pay attention to the road signs. The further north one drives, the more complicated the language becomes. It is not a case of the signs being too difficult to understand. It’s just that the words have more syllables in them and there are more words in the sign. I’m not kidding. Those road signs seem to be testimony to the oft-reported difference in education between the two regions. I’ve never driven across the country, but my son-in-law complains about trying to understand road signs in some states. It has to do with phrases and word order that are understood locally, but not outside the area.
So, how will the agencies decide what is “clear, simple, meaningful and jargon-free” language? Even the jargon-free part isn’t always clear. What is jargon to one person is perfectly normal to others, especially these days when computers and the internet have created a whole alternative language. Are java and cookies a snack or computer terms?
The basic flaw in this law is the assumption that just because English is the primary language of the nation, we all speak the same English. Quick, what do up, down and over mean? If you’re a Vermonter they mean north, south and east or west, as in “over the mountain.” It’s a word usage specific to a place where all the mountain ranges run north-to-south with valleys in between. Those mountains even created dialect and accent differences between the valleys.
There is a phenomenon in the United Kingdom called “BBC English.” It refers to the disappearance of the very distinct regional accents of the island as a consequence of generational exposure to a standardized pronunciation on television. One can hear it in Prince William. He doesn’t have the veddy, veddy upper class accent of the older generation of royals. We don’t have as complete a unification of language usage in our television, and people tend to gravitate toward television shows that “sound” right. Sixty years of television has not produced a universal American English.
So, if a current advisory says “Before an individual can be determined eligible for Disaster Unemployment Assistance, it must be established that the individual is not eligible for regular unemployment insurance benefits,” are we absolutely certain that everyone will understand if it says, “You can get financial help from Disaster Unemployment Assistance if your job was lost or interrupted as a direct result of a major disaster declared by the president of the United States.” They managed, in making that “clearer” to leave out the part about not being already eligible for regular unemployment, but what the heck.
They really might want to consider hiring a few consultants from ad agencies. Perhaps, the guys who write for the AFLAC duck?
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