Information with clarity

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves

2012-01-25T16:24:00.000+13:00

Martin J Eppler, PhD, an American expert in clear communications, said:

‘In today’s attention economy, clear communication is the decisive factor to being heard and understood. Leaving this factor to chance is a risk that no organisation can afford.’

We agree.

He has written about how to achieve clear communication in CW Bulletin, the magazine of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Read his article Examples and tools for clear communication.

Crash blossoms continue to bloom

2012-01-24T07:56:00.000+13:00

In Language Log, I came across the term 'crash blossoms' - a new and delightful term for those garden path sentences that lead the reader down one track then suddenly force a reappraisal and a rereading. We find them a lot in headlines: "Experts: skeptical US drone shot down;" "Woman Better after Being Thrown from High-rise," "Milk Drinkers Turn to Powder."

(In the New York Times column 'On Language', one of the Language Log authors explains where the term came from, and gives some hilarious examples.)

Crash blossoms even have their own blog: Crash Blossoms >> Headlines gone wrong.

And crash blossoms are alive and well in New Zealand, today's Stuff giving us "Education costs a stretch" (and how parents wish that a stretch was all it cost), while the New Zealand Herald tells us that "Bikes bring more money than wood from Rotorua forest" (I thought they used logging trucks).

Slang on trading floors is disappearing

2012-01-18T15:28:00.002+13:00

Shifts in our language to improve clarity can happen naturally over time. And the trading floors in London are no exception.

Slang like ‘cable’, ‘Bill and Ben’, and ‘the Stokkie’ are less likely to be heard. And the reasons — foreign exchange traders are now more likely to be university educated. They make more electronic deals, and now deal in the Euro, and in an international environment.

These changes have made a difference, as explained in the article ‘Modern trading killing off “barrow boy” market slang’.

No comma splices, please; we're allergic

2012-01-12T15:56:00.001+13:00

Over in the Economist column 'Johnson' (named after the dictionary-maker) they've been debating the dreaded comma splice, leading to a post that begins:

SEVERAL months ago I w as surprised to see Arnold Zwicky, a linguist, use a comma splice. A few commenters took me to task for being over-picky. The question came up again in the comments several days ago, when k.a.gardner, a frequent commenter, asked for a post on the comma splice. One of my colleagues quickly replied that "The comma-splice rule is totally arbitrary," and a back-and-forth ensued.

What is a comma splice? Prof Zwicky wrote back in July

"this is not even a tempest in a teapot, it’s a fuss in a thimbleful of spit."

That's two independent clauses joined only by a comma, or a comma splice, sometimes called a "comma fault".

Pop over to the Economist and have your say, or join in our discussion here. Comma splice. Pedantry or plain speaking?

Be plain, or be toast!

2012-01-05T10:38:00.002+13:00

It's time to end financial jargon, says an article in Stuff today. The article - which quotes our own Lynda Harris - challenges the need for gobbledygook in financial forms, reports, and documents. Here's a sample:

If you read it thoroughly but still don't understand it, then always challenge it, says Harris. There's no need to feel stupid or intimidated.

"We're always saying to people: `You have a right to understand.' "

In other plain English-related news, MPs are calling the Food Bill poorly drafted and confusing.

Giving readers the information they want

2011-12-20T11:38:00.003+13:00

One of the key writing principles we teach is to think of the reader. We give readers the information we think they want to know. But how do we know we’re right? We recommend document user-testing.

The Office for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income recently wrote a booklet for residents of the earthquake-affected Red Zone in Christchurch. Find the booklet at http://www.sorted.org.nz/redzone — it presents the financial, legal, and insurance information residents need to make decisions about their houses.

Before the Commission published the booklet, they went to Christchurch. They showed the booklet to a group of Red Zone residents and asked them if it was easy to read, and if the information was useful. Changes were made to the content and layout of the booklet.

As a result, Christchurch Red Zone residents have information and a process that takes some of the stress out of a difficult time in their lives.

Write is encouraging its clients to think about running their own user-testing projects. We have conducted two lunchtime seminars on document user-testing. Fifty people came to each session, so we can see that our clients are concerned about their readers. Find out more about user-testing at http://www.write.co.nz/Document+services/Document+user-testing.html

Document user-testing tells you what your readers understand.
Identify and address surprises.
Validate your educated guesses.
Try out variations before committing a document to print.
Understand reader reaction.
Reduce the need for customer support.

Manufacturers have been testing their products for years. Testing our documents makes good business sense — to make sure we give readers what they want.

I don't understand you

2011-12-09T10:58:00.000+13:00

"People just don't make sense anymore," says Dan Pallotta, in the Harvard Business Review. Dan diagnoses five strains of what he calls an epidemic in modern business conversations. We agree with his solution!

Even the professionals get confused - supporting the case for plain English

2011-12-05T10:38:00.010+13:00

Even the financially literate folk at the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income can get confused by financial information, according to a recent report about KiwiSaver calculations. It just goes to show that everyone benefits from clear, concise communication. And when we're reading about complex topics like retirement savings, clarity is critical. The main message to fund managers? 'Keep KiwiSaver clear.'

Read what happened here

The magic of keyboard shortcuts

2011-12-05T09:17:00.001+13:00

Hunting on a web page for a piece of text? Did you know that Ctrl-F can take you straight there?

Or that there are a whole bunch of keyboard shortcuts that turn lengthy tasks into the work of an instant? Around 90% of web users don’t. Read this piece from the Sydney Morning Herald (via Stuff). Scroll down for a list of really useful shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcuts you should know

Update on the work of US anti-jargon warriors

2011-12-04T22:17:00.004+13:00

A recent article in The Washington Post brings us up to date with plain language happenings in the United States.

Read the article here

How long does it take to learn a new word?

2011-11-25T14:02:00.001+13:00

When a new ‘must-have’ device is launched, the early adopters go shopping. They know its language already. They’ve been reading the magazines.

The rest of us have to do our homework and learn new words before we buy a tablet or a smartphone. To help with your shopping, try the jargon-busting http://www.computeractive.co.uk/jargonbuster

But a definition is not enough to understand cloud, slider, flash storage, Android, Bluetooth, dual-core, and apps. We need to hear a word, see it in different contexts, read the advertisements, and try the products to understand how a slider or Android can change our lives. Like a child learning a new word, we test our understanding of the word with questions and use in it conversations.

I rely on the writing skill of technical writers to help me understand new words. They must write clearly and never assume that I already know their language. Here’s a great link for technical writers—are specs and techy words the best way to review gadgets?

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/11/working-on-spec-on-the-power-of-hard-data-bad-product-reviews-and-jim-romenesko/

And the answer to the how-long-does-it-take question—we need to use a word maybe 18-20 times to know it well.

For fun, expand your store of great words on this site from the New York Times
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/word-of-the-day/

Read all about it -- Awards winners and finalists announced

2011-11-14T22:14:00.004+13:00

Congratulations to the winners and finalists in the WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards!

Read about the winners and finalists

See the full list of winners and finalists

Beating dyslexia — one character at a time

2011-10-27T09:46:00.006+13:00

Dutch researcher Christian Boer has designed a new font, 'Dyslexie', to make it easier for people with dyslexia to read.

The font uses several features that make it less likely that characters will appear jumbled or reversed.

Read more about it in this Scientific American article:

Bold Stroke: New Font Helps Dyslexics Read — you can even read the article itself in the new font!

Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance

2011-10-18T12:01:00.003+13:00

I love this piece by American author Daniel Handler, written under his pen-name Lemony Snicket.

My personal favourite:

3. Money is like a child — rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.

Read the full post on occupywriters.com

Health literacy - new definition, new skills

2011-10-14T08:54:00.002+13:00

October is Health Literacy Month.

So what is health literacy? The ground is already shifting in this relatively new discipline.

About 5 years ago the American Medical Association Foundation defined health literacy as:

‘the ability to read, understand and act on medical information’. The focus was on the patient and their skills.

A newer definition:

‘health literacy is the communication component of healthcare’.

The focus is shifting to the health provider.

Clinicians need to check consumer and patient understanding. ‘Have I presented the information in a way that’s easy to understand and act on?’

Rosie Knight is a plain English specialist at Write. Health literacy is one of her great interests. She has inspired a new workshop, the Health Information Lab. It offers strategies and techniques for communicating clearly about health, and checking that the consumer really knows what they need to.

Read about Write’s Health Information Lab

Save on training, and celebrate

2011-10-13T12:04:00.004+13:00

At Write we're making it a little easier to cut the waffle and clarify your communication.

We're offering a special price for our plain English training, just for today.

You can also get two copies of the Write Style Guide for the price of one.

The reason? It's our way of celebrating International Plain Language Day.

Read more about our specials and how to book

It’s time to celebrate Plain Language Day

2011-10-05T16:43:00.003+13:00

Make a diary note to keep things clear on Thursday 13 October — it’s International Plain Language Day.

The day marks the first anniversary of the US Plain Writing Act. It’s being celebrated globally, on the net and on the streets.

At Write Limited’s Wellington office, come and hear about literacy and editing in the future, when the printed page has been left behind by technology.

Judy Knighton, one of Write’s plain English specialists, will deliver the presentation she recently gave to editors in Australia.

What’s the role for editors now that literacy means reading a phone, sending a tweet, and downloading a podcast? Will editors have a place as new technologies multiply?

TCANZ — the Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand — is hosting the event.

Read more about ‘The transliterate scribe’ and how to attend

Read about Judy Knighton

And watch this blog for Write’s special offers to celebrate International Plain Language Day.

Plain English optimisation for top search rankings

2011-10-03T10:58:00.001+13:00

As Google's algorithms become more and more sophisticated, journalist and web editor Robert Niles suggests that it's time to forget about keywords and search engine optimisation.

...and time to focus instead on PEO [Plain English Optimisation].
Too many writers think of SEO as writing for computers, when their real focus should be writing to meet the needs of a human audience. Ask yourself these questions whenever you write:
Are you writing about something that people have personal experience with or personal interest in? Can you express that audience "need" in 10 words or less? Have you done that in the story?
Does your article do anything to provide a practical take-away that helps readers address this need, whether it be a to-do-list (even a short one) or at least relevant, previously unknown information about the topic? Can you describe that take-away in 10 words or less? Have you done that in the story?
Are you writing using the words and phrases that normal readers - people who aren't your sources and co-workers - use when they talk about this topic? Are you using the vocabulary of a 10th grader, or a 10-year professional in the field?
Describe your piece in three words. Do those three words appear in the headline, the title tag or at least within the opening paragraph? How long does the reader have to read your piece before he or she will know what you're writing about?
Are you drowning your reporting under too many words?

Enter your winning plain English or 'brainstrain' document today

2011-09-28T10:11:00.000+13:00

Friday of this week is the closing date for entries to the Plain English Awards.

It's not too late to enter - there are 15 awards in seven categories. Category 7 is People's Choice, with awards for best plain English document, best plain English website, 'brainstrain' document, and 'brainstrain' website.

Why not enter your favourite document or website - or the document or website that does your head in (or all four)?

Or try your hand at the Best Plain English Sentence Transformation (Category 4), for an amazing prize.

The Awards website has details of how to enter, and of the awards in the other five categories (Plain English Champion, Best Plain English Document, Best Plain English Website, Best Plain English Technical Communicator, Best Plain English Financial Document).

2011-09-26T11:37:00.000+13:00

Brit Tom Albrighton, on his ABC Copywriting blog, has kicked off a 'Plain English Patrol' - under which name he promises to find, dissect, and repair badly written signs. He laments:

Bad English is everywhere, just waiting to leap out and chafe your sensibilities. And the heartbreaking thing is that just a little thought and effort would have made the difference between total calamity and total clarity.

In this first Plain English Patrol post, he looks at three signs. Here's an example:

It’s the small print about a competition that’s promoted on the bottle.
Open to those aged 12 and under. Parent/Guardian consent is required for participation…
So let me get this straight. By definition, we’re talking to kids – if the parent or guardian is already reading, there isn’t a problem. And we’re talking to kids as young as five or six. So why, in the name of all that’s holy, are we using words like ‘consent’, ‘required’ and ‘participation’?
The Flesch-Kincaid reading level of this text is 9.0, or US ninth grade – in other words, only likely to be comprehensible to children of at least 14. Clearly, whoever wrote this didn’t spend too long thinking about the nature and concerns of their audience.
It’s puzzling because the understandable version is so obvious:
You must be 12 or younger to enter. Ask your Mum or Dad first.
OK, I’ve lost the ‘guardian’, but I’m sure kids with guardians will get the message. And with a grade level of 1.4 (clear to a six-year-old) I feel the trade-off is totally worth it.

Kicking language into touch

2011-09-20T14:55:00.002+12:00

I’m only a part-time rugby fan, but I’m enjoying the fun that journalists are having with language.

Country names, characteristics, and yes, stereotypes have given readers some great headlines. Last weekend, Rugby Heaven tempted us to read on with ‘Wobbly Wallabies in an Irish Stew’, ‘French a rabble but they can still fry us’, and even ‘French follies could be on the cards’. If you enjoy Hoagy Carmichael’s easy listening style, you’ll appreciate ‘Georgia on Moody’s mind’.

Metaphors abound. I enjoyed the ‘orchestrated performance of sustained passion and pressure from the pack’ in the Ireland v Australia game. Sadly, ‘Australia…never found a rhythm through the first stanza’, and ‘the All Blacks hit a speed bump on the road to playoffs’. Did you see the ‘Welshmen muscle up to the Island challenge in a crunch ‘Pool of Death’ clash’? And even a part-time rugby fan could see that ‘Ireland has laid an explosive charge under the whole tournament.’ Heavy duty language when you really need it.

Headlines can be sound bites as well. Duncan Johnstone had fun with ‘Cooper bites back over “boofhead” backstabbing’ in the Dominion Post on Friday, as Marc Hinton did on Monday with ‘Ka pai Kahui’.

Some reports are close to the bone. All players should be afraid of Sonny Bill Williams, our ‘potent weapon’. The Springboks will be disappointed to be ‘the old and the restless’, but ‘gallant’ is such a great word to describe Wales and Georgia.

We all knew that the game in New Plymouth on Thursday between USA and Russia would be a ‘Cold war clash’ and a ‘Clash of the Titans’—I felt their pain as the Eagles clawed the Bears in the Dominion Post on Friday. ‘Bringing the big guns’ (Radio NZ on Sunday) didn’t save the Russians. I grew up with the real fear of the real cold war, and could not have imagined back in the sixties, that we would one day use these words for sportive fun.

Enjoying language, and understanding how we play with it, is the subject of a New Zealand book just published, called Q & Eh, Questions and answers on language with a kiwi twist. The writers are linguists at Victoria University, Professors Laurie Bauer and Janet Holmes, Associate Professor Paul Warren and Dr Dianne Bardsley. They write a popular language column in the Dominion Post.

'Q & Eh' is a revised version of their Dominion Post columns. I’ve been dipping into it, but you could read it from cover to cover. It has several references to the language of sport—enjoy the two to three page answers to important questions, like ‘Is there always fighting talk in sports reports?’ and ‘Are you stumped when it comes to cricket?’ 'Q & Eh' uses cartoons and photographs to illustrate points, and has a helpful glossary of language terms, and an easy-to-use index. It's arranged by theme and is fun to read.

A rose by any other name...

2011-09-16T09:03:00.002+12:00

Neil James of the Plain English Foundation, in a presentation on the first morning of the IPEd Conference, challenged us to apply a simple test of public recognition. Ask your taxi driver, he said, what profession solves the problem, and what is the name of the professional practitioner.

Illness or injury? Medicine and doctor.

A complex tax return? Accountancy and accountant.

Breach of contract? Law and lawyer.

What about producing a document?

Thanks to historical contexts, the fragmented theoretical base, and rapidly evolving fields, we're unlikely to get the same response (or in some cases any response) from all the people we ask.

Neil suggests that we needed to promote editing and its communications siblings as part of a broader communications discipline, encompassing editing, technical communication, plain language, information design, and usability.

My question to you is what should we call this discipline? Neil suggests 'communicator'. My offering that day was 'scribe' - a word with a venerable tradition. Once, designers used to call themselves commercial artists. Does that make us commercial writers?

Thinking about it further, I'm leaning towards 'writer'. That's what I put on customs documents and tax forms. When people ask: 'What do you do?' I respond: 'I write'. 'What do you write?' With Hamlet, I reply: 'Words. Words. Words.'

Any preferences? Other suggestions?

Linguistic Darwinism

2011-09-15T10:51:00.001+12:00

To me, one of the most fascinating speakers at the IPEd Conference was Kate Burridge. Kate is Professor of Linguistics at Monash University. She gave us a quick history of the English language in several passages - from Old English, Middle English, and Early New English.

The English of 1200 years ago is impossible for an untutored ear to understand. Those who wrote Beowulf down around the turn of the first millenium would have been unable to read Chaucer, just 300 years later. But with the coming of printing, and widespread prose literacy, change slowed. And in the seventeenth century, English solidified.

For 500 years, as Kate put it, the written tail has wagged the spoken dog.

Kate suggests that change is speeding up again, fueled by the number of speakers for whom English is not a mother tongue, and by social media. Once again, people are using language to create community and express identity.

Ebooks and the future of publishing

2011-09-13T16:24:00.000+12:00

Epublishing was a recurring theme at the IPEd conference, with two plenary sessions and a number of workshops.

Many publications departments are integrating ebooks into their editorial or production workflows. Amazon already sells more ebooks than print books (or pbooks, as some call them).

Speakers at the conference argued forcefully for editors to manage the ebook process. Whatever the publication method, the content is still what matters. The purpose of publishing is to convey meaning - to send a message from writers to readers. Whether the document is a prize-winning novel, a mathematics textbook, a corporate annual report, or a government white paper, the publication doesn't exist for its own sake, but for the sake of the message.

The role of an editor is to ensure that the message gets through. In an epublishing future, editors are more important than ever.

A matter of tone

2011-09-12T12:48:00.000+12:00

Plain English isn't just a matter of well-chosen headings, straight-forward words, short active sentences, clear layout, and good structure. Tone matters, too. Tone tells your reader what you think of them. Meredith and I saw a Sydney Buses sign that was a great example of what can happen when you don't get your tone right. It said:

"No smoking. No drinking. No eating. Security cameras are operating on this bus. Plain clothes policemen may be present on the bus."

Then, having made it clear that we weren't welcome, and weren't to be trusted, it went on:

"If you need any further information, please ask for a copy of our 'Welcome Aboard' brochure."

'Further'? 'Welcome Aboard'? For more about what Sydney Buses thinks about its customers, see here.

IPEd Conference 2011

2011-09-09T14:14:00.000+12:00

Meredith and I are in Sydney at the Conference of the Institute of Professional Editors.

We've lots of ideas to bring back - and will report when we've returned to NZ and caught up on sleep! For now, here's a few quotes:

"Just because anyone can publish doesn't mean that they should."

"Editors are really all about the user experience."

"As technologies change, editorial will be the calm centre of the storm."

Shall we enhance?

2011-09-08T12:15:00.002+12:00

At Write, debates about the accuracy of words are rife, and ‘enhance’ is one of our favourites. We categorise it as vague, euphemistic, and non-specific.

A computer geek who visited us trainer geeks one day barely got out of the office alive. He swanned confidently into our corner and cheerfully informed us that he had come to ‘enhance the functionality of our computers’.

You can’t get away with that sort of linguistic temerity with us. As one, we rose in horrified protest. ‘Functionality’ was bad enough, being a piece of IT- generated jargon, but ‘enhance’? Exactly what did he mean? The computer man became very nervous. He explained, carried out four separate adjustments on our four separate machines, and fled, a broken human being.

So I was ripe for the linguistic challenge put to me by a colleague. She’d discovered there was such a thing as an Eel Enhancement Company —and wondered just what they would do?

I said I’d pick up the phone and ask.

The person I spoke to acknowledged that I had the name right. ‘What do you actually do with the eels?’ I asked.

No response. ‘Do you make them longer?’ I pursued. ‘Or shorter?’ Still no response. ‘Thinner or fatter? Sexier?’ I wanted to know. By this time, my person was beginning to suspect a leg-pull and became reluctant to say anything.

I decided on being adamant in a last-ditch effort to gain clarity.

‘I work for a plain English company,’ I said. ‘We think businesses and organisations should use words accurately and be specific. If someone wanted to know what it is you do to eels, what would you say to them?’

And finally, the beans were spilled.

‘We breed them,’ I was told.

Don't make bad news worse

2011-09-02T10:42:00.000+12:00

Early definitions of 'health literacy' focused on the reader's ability to understand and use health information - as we discussed back in June. Recent work brings the health practitioner who writes or gives the health information into the definition.

Later, I'm going to blog about the financial cost to the country of poor health literacy, but let Elspeth Murray tell you about the human cost of badly-presented health information. As Elspeth's poem 'This is bad enough' reminds us, when you get bad news about your health, you want health information that cares about you. It should be clear, relevant, up to date, and make the reader feel it's written for them.

Press for the printable word

2011-08-29T10:25:00.001+12:00

Last month Dictionary.com posted 13 flash cards of ‘Printable words the New York Times expected you to know on Sunday, July 24th.’

Let’s leave aside the obvious question: You mean there were unprintable words the paper wanted you to know?

Dictionary.com picked 10 words, including ‘meslimatic’, ‘souse’, and ‘nonpareil’. Yes, it did seem the ‘Gray Lady’ was without equal in asking her readers to have a dictionary nearby as they read. Not to feel ‘schadenfreude’ (another gem on the list) for the New York Times … but I wondered whether other newspapers were in the habit of using such words regularly?

So I did a quick review of the Monday 15 August issue of The New Zealand Herald. And what did I find? An article about a little adidas public relations problem, with embroiled, frontfoot, and alignment. Yes, I know the last two are quite witty. But the opinion pieces had proximate, malaise, vindicating, and coalesced. Maybe a word in the ears of future contributors will meld mind to pen.

And if a writer must use a complex phrase about childcare or economics, why not explain it in context? For ‘wraparound services’ , why not a process to care for youths with complex needs? And isn’t ‘taking a gradualist approach’ merely saying ‘it’s slow going’? Well, articles with this type of phrase certainly are.
And why do we still see ‘in order to’ when ‘to’ will do? It’s not that I am wishing to ‘carp’ or to be ‘sardonic’ (another two from the New York Times), or even be Seussian, but this really will not do.

I know we expect a broadsheet to be wordier than a tabloid, but with less time to get the facts and more sources for news, shouldn’t content be clearer?

On the subject of passion

2011-08-22T10:25:00.000+12:00

I'm consumed with admiration for David Mitchell's views about passion...

The pen is (still) mightier than the cursor

2011-08-17T16:28:00.008+12:00

Enrolment — reassuringly bewildering
I’ve just got the enrolment pack for my son’s primary school.

It’s reassuringly bewildering — does every parent think that?

There is information about things that weren’t a concern when I went there 41 years ago. (Yes, he’s going to my old school.)

There are two computers per class – Macs no less – and a couple of pods of laptops that classes can book for projects. (How many laptops in a pod? I've no idea, but when I find out, I’ll let you know.)

There’s stuff about sunhats in summer and telephone trees in an emergency.

There’s familiar stuff, like the Scholastic Book Club (hey, neat, I remember that!) and order forms for lunches. (Phew, I get a day off lunchbox duty!)

Finally, stuff about what he’ll be learning
On the last two pages, I came to something really, reassuringly familiar — and vitally important: two pages of the alphabet, upper case and lower, with the penstrokes of each large letters carefully numbered to guide the learning child.

With computers on tap, I am relieved that handwriting is still on the curriculum, taking its place alongside lessons in using the internet.

My 11-year-old niece can write a beautiful thank you card. But she says she finds it easier to text or type.

In the event of a catastrophe…
The keyboard, mouse and keypad have taken an inalienable place in our world but the place for handwriting hasn’t gone away. When the network fails or the battery dies, the only tools we have for recording information will still be pen and paper. When milk costs too much to buy, let alone the $800 for an iPad, you’ll still be able to afford a Bic and a Jotta.

Life and death
The importance of clear handwriting as a tool for clear communication cannot be overrated. It’s a matter of life and death – just ask a pharmacist, struggling to make out the 5’s from the 2’s on a scrawled prescription.

There’s something eloquent and obliquely revealing about good handwriting, that you just don’t get from choosing a nice font.

I will study the alphabet in the enrolment book carefully. I look forward to using it to show my son how to bend the unruly pencil to his will.

The pen is no longer mightier than the cursor, but its day will not be over for a long time yet. Maybe never.

The New Zealand Passport—smart chip; smarter design

2011-08-15T13:23:00.001+12:00

They say that no matter where you go in the world you’ll find a New Zealander. And, more likely than not, that New Zealander will be holding a new black biometric passport, with navigation and travel as its core themes.

A quick trip back in time
In the beginning there was the manually read passport. Then came the more reliable machine readable passport, and immigration officials could process arriving and departing passengers more quickly. Today less than 4% of New Zealanders hold non-machine readable passports, and the New Zealand passport has evolved yet again. It morphed into a biometric passport on 2 September 2008.
This latest passport has an embedded electronic chip that holds facial biometric identifiers. You can see the chip in the symbol on the front cover and in the polycarbonate leaf inside the front of the passport (where you’ll find the chip).

An effective and smart design
Yet the new New Zealand regular passport is smart in other ways. It shows how you can increase information on many layers, yet decrease document size; how you can introduce new themes and artwork, yet keep a document consistent and cohesive. Indeed, it is a great example of content and design coming together in a tightly controlled format.

The design is even smarter when you think that you open it without dwelling on the work behind the design—the research, complex file setup, detailed illustrations, and layout work that went into crafting the Clemenger BBDO-designed passport. All you see is the final effective and smart design.
Instead, you get a story (in English and Te Reo Māori) that develops with each turn of the page. It has constant images that form repetitive patterns (ocean, clouds, and the kōwhaiwhai border) showing how New Zealanders found their way to the land and are framed, yet not constrained, by it.

Other elements progress the design. We see the colours change from purple to orange to green to blue, from dawn to twilight. We see aerial views of sea and land and the Southern Cross move across the sky, as we chart navigational techniques. And this process gets repeated as New Zealanders renew their passport every five years.

The New Zealand passport has become a well-made thread that ties New Zealanders to the fabric of home as they fly or sail beyond its shores to other lands. If only all documents could look and travel so well.

If you want to know more about the design elements on each page of the New Zealand passport (and what they represent), visit http://www.passports.govt.nz/Passport-Design-Story

If you want to know more about what goes into a passport’s content, visit the International Civil Aviation Organization’s website and view Document 9303. It is available in the six UN official languages at http://www2.icao.int/en/MRTD/Pages/Document9303.aspx. Document 9303 has the current ICAO specifications for travel documents (including machine-readable passports, visas and ID cards) used when crossing borders. But note that not all countries follow the specifications.

Strung out

2011-08-02T08:25:00.001+12:00

Do you know about noun strings? No, I didn’t either, until I joined Write.

Now I have a name for those occasionally bewildering successions of nouns that have me reading and re-reading, puzzling over what they mean.

Here’s a noun string: automatic frequency regulation services. Four nouns in a block. Concise? Or confusing?

Sometimes noun strings absolutely don’t mean what they say. Do ‘community-based family violence service providers’ bash you up if you ask? Of course not. They do important work reducing family violence and supporting its victims. But that’s not how it reads.

More often, noun strings do what they say. Working out what they say is the tricky part.

You can say ‘New Zealand electricity power system benefits’. Or ‘Human Resources Partnership Implementation Committee Partnering Dialogue’.

Or you can untangle the string to make it easier for your reader to string together your meaning. Write a phrase, not a series of nouns.

‘New Zealand electricity power system benefits’ are the benefits of New Zealand’s electric power system.

And then there’s the dialogue of the committee that’s implementing the human resources partnership. I’ll reluctantly pass the three nouns in a row (human resources partnership). But less is better.

When you’re busting noun strings, keep an eye out for nouns that could be verbs. The writer has turned a verb — implement — into a noun — implementation. Look out for ‘-tions’ and ‘-ments’ and turn them back into verbs.

Your sentences may get longer. But this isn’t about word count. It’s about clarity.

Good information; good health

2011-07-22T09:26:00.002+12:00

I met someone this week who wanted to talk to Write about health literacy — see our blog
Reading and writing for health. She works for a District Health Board (DHB) and knows that people with low literacy often have poorer health.

There’s no shortage of information on every health problem. However, actually using it to improve your health and your family’s health is a complex language task. You have to find the right information, read or hear the words, and understand your illness. Then you have to consider your options, decide how to change your life, set goals and achieve them.

My new friend at the DHB wants people in her region to find it easy to get the health information they need. It’s a challenge, because about 45% of New Zealanders have low literacy, and struggle with the information demands of each day. She can’t change the literacy of the community, but she can encourage the people who produce the brochures and forms to write them clearly and simply.

I’ve sent her two links to websites with statistics and research on literacy in NZ. The first link is to the home page of the international Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) survey. NZ was one of 12 countries that conducted the survey in 2006.

Education Counts is the research section of the Ministry of Education. They aim to ‘increase the availability and accessibility of information about education statistics and research in New Zealand’. The website is easy to use, and has a range of articles on aspects of literacy, using the results of the survey.

The second link is to the Ministry of Health’s research into Health Literacy and Māori, using the same survey results.

If you write health information for a DHB, try these tips:

write short sentences — generally shorter than 20 words
give only three main messages — more information is not always better
define medical words the first time you use them or use a plain English alternative for a medical word — download our medical ebook

'The clearest book ever'?

2011-07-21T09:00:00.000+12:00

I've just finished a great little book by author Wendy Betteridge. Titled 'It's Your Thoughts that Count', it reminds us about the tremendous power of one's thoughts and how they, above all else, shape your life. Scary but true.

However, it wasn't the great title that caught my eye -- it was the challenge to Wendy on the Acknowledgments page that aroused my curiosity. John Ansell, well-known adman (iwi-kiwi) and passionate campaigner for plain English, challenged Wendy to write 'the clearest book ever'.

What a challenge! Wendy rose to it admirably and the result is an easily digestible book full of advice and inspiration to make one's life a clear reflection of our best-self thoughts.

It's Your Thoughts that Count

Proofreading makes money

2011-07-15T13:20:00.002+12:00

This article from BBC News gives some evidence for the return on investment of good document practices -- editing and proofreading.

It's not just documents destined for hard-copy printing that need proofreading. Remember to proofread copy for your website or blog. This often-overlooked part of the publishing process for online documents can have a big impact.

According to Charles Duncombe and the Confederation of British Industry, a single spelling mistake can cut your online sales in half.

Dinner in white

2011-07-13T13:03:00.000+12:00

Why are thousands of people in white dining in a courtyard of the Louvre?

'So you think you can write about my specialist topic?'

2011-07-07T17:00:00.009+12:00

Clients often want to know how we can help in the writing process — especially when we’re not subject matter experts.

Not experts in your topic

Subject matter experts are, of course, the ones we rely on to ensure that what we write is accurate. Our expertise lies in:

extracting the information – from interviews, background reading, even watching you in action
structuring the information
writing the information in clear terms so that other people can understand your messages.

One of the key benefits we bring is a fresh eye to the information. We’re not afraid to ask ‘why?’ or even ‘so what?’ and we’ll tell you when something isn’t clear enough. Our aim is to produce the text you would have written if you’d had the time and the plain English skills.

And you might be surprised what we know a bit about. Out writing team has worked with myriad subjects and vastly different clients.

But experts in writing about any topic

We use a clearly defined writing process that includes research and planning, writing and editing, with consultation along the way. We’ll consider the purpose and audience and create an outline of your document. We’ll check the structure with you. Then we’ll provide the content in more detail, usually over several iterations, crafting as we go. The aim is for you to feel confident your material is accurately conveyed and uses your voice and style.

Making sure the document is readable and accessible — and connects with the intended audience — is fundamental. We’ll be the advocate for the reader. It’s often hard for people with a lot of information and expertise at their disposal to get to the real heart of what they need to say. We’ll ask all the questions your reader might ask, so together we can refine the content and tell your story clearly.

And ready to help you any time

Our process is tried and true, and calling on our writing team can be a godsend when deadlines are looming. In the end, the writing still belongs to you — you can decide to accept or reject what we come up with.

We think we can write — but you be the judge.

Find out more by emailing consulting@write.co.nz.

The Oxford comma lives!

2011-07-01T14:02:00.002+12:00

This from Stuff:

A report that Oxford University had changed its comma rule left some punctuation obsessives alarmed, annoyed, and distraught. Passions subsided as the university said the news was imprecise, incomplete and misleading.

Catch the difference between the two previous sentences? An "Oxford comma" was used before "and" in the first sentence, but is absent in the second, in accordance with the style used by The Associated Press.

Guides to correct style differ and the issue became heated on Twitter after reports of the Oxford comma's demise. But have no fear, comma-philes: the Oxford comma lives...

[see Stuff for the rest of the article]

Top 10 misused English words

2011-06-17T08:30:00.000+12:00

ListVerse, home to top-10 lists on almost everything, has recently published Andrew Pepper's list of the top ten English words misused by professional writers and speakers.

Do you agree? Disagree? Do you have other candidates?

(Andrew Pepper writes crime fiction set in Victorian Britain, and lectures in English at Queen's University, Belfast.)

Double the writing — double the cost

2011-06-02T15:32:00.000+12:00

A reporter for a regional newspaper contacted me recently to see if I thought State of the Environment reports should be written in plain English. (Of course I do!) She said that some councillors had criticised the council's 165-page report for being too technical. Council staff had responded by saying that the report needed to be technical to meet Ministry for the Environment requirements, but that it planned to produce another version everyone would be able to understand.

What did I think of that? Even a report that has a significant technical requirement can usually be written to satisfy a less-informed audience. Without having seen the report, it seemed to be a waste of time and taxpayer money to rewrite a document that could almost certainly have been written to meet the needs of a wider audience in the first place. Writing twice inevitably means twice the cost.

I quickly checked the Ministry for the Environment website and various State of the Environment reports for clues as to what was expected. I certainly didn’t find any instruction that these reports must be written primarily for a technical audience. But I did find plenty of evidence that these public documents should be accessible to rate payers and any interested members of the public. Interestingly, the Nelson City Council State of the Environment Report 2010 (which has many plain English features) noted that ‘While it is now a requirement to prepare an SOE report, the Act is largely silent on the content and presentation style of that report’.

So it is up to councils to find a writing style that meets the needs of its audience. Since plain English is a style of writing that chooses structure, language and presentation based entirely on the needs of its audience, it is the only style a council should use.

The various reports I looked at from around the country revealed a considerable range of writing styles and approaches. Some authorities had made a clear effort to use language that would be accessible to interested members of the public, while others used highly technical language familiar to environmental experts but few others. Some had clearly made some effort but still included a raft of technical terms that made the report hard going.

Unsurprisingly the reports that were written in plainer language were generally more interesting and more likely to promote participation in environmental issues. A rather important point I think.

Not only indexes hide at the back of the book

2011-05-26T15:02:00.000+12:00

My colleague Meredith recently ran a well-received workshop on indexing. This meant I had the idea of back-of-book indexes and glossaries in mind when I read the new novel Player One by Douglas Coupland.

You wouldn't usually expect a novel to have an index. I have seen the occasional novel (usually something historical or fantastical) with a glossary. A Clockwork Orange would certainly benefit from one, with its inventive and Russian-based nadsat teenage slang.

Player One uses thirty (thirty!) pages to present a 'future legend' -- partly reference material for reading the novel, but mainly a list of interesting ideas connected to the novel. The intention certainly seems to be that the reader works their way serially through this legend when they reach the end of the book

So, an index? no. In the back of the book? yes. Interesting? definitely.

Information design - starting with raisin biscuits

2011-05-18T09:39:00.006+12:00

I still have the first recipe I ever wrote down. It set the course of my career.

It was on the school holiday radio programme when I was nine. I put it in the blank-paged book for collecting recipes that Mum gave me. It’s for raisin biscuits, and I still make it all the time.

I quickly filled that cookbook, starting with the baking section. When that was full, I commandeered the ‘sauces and gravies’ section for more cakes and biscuits.

Realising space was tight, I began to experiment with different ways of laying out the recipes so they took up less room but all the important details were captured.

Now I keep recipes on my laptop, so layout and space are not so important.

But I organise information for a living. Is space a problem? Is all the information there, in the order the reader needs it? Is it easy to follow? Can they find the information they need?

Whether you are making raisin biscuits, reading a webpage, or filling out a form, your basic needs as a reader are the same. Good information design is a must. The proof of the pudding is in the ease of understanding.

The emperor has no clothes - and he's not a pretty sight!

2011-05-15T18:36:00.002+12:00

Swap the management speak for plain English, says the Financial Times in a recent article, which begins:

When the inquest into London’s 7/7 suicide bombings started in October last year, the coroner became increasingly exasperated. On the final day of evidence, she snapped. “All you senior people [of the emergency services] are allowing yourselves to be taken over by management jargon,” Lady Justice Hallett said. “You people at the top need to say, ‘We have to communicate with people in plain English.’”

Writer Simon Caulkin looks at the reasons for convoluted business language, and concludes that it shows a poor customer focus, a lack of understanding, and a desire to confuse.

US ClearMark Award winners announced

2011-05-10T10:03:00.000+12:00

The winners of the US 2011 ClearMark Awards are on the Centre for Plain Language website.

Have a look at the before and after views of the Grand Prize Winner documents, submitted by the US Internal Revenue Service — who said tax was hard?

Lynda was one of the judges for this year’s Awards. She says it was a great opportunity to work with the international plain English community, and also to see how the US federal services are responding to their new Plain English legislation. The ClearMark Awards were inspired by the New Zealand’s WriteMark Awards. We were thrilled to hear that.

Write's helping to shape winners!

2011-05-06T14:18:00.007+12:00

Congratulations to Miles Crawford who won the Plain Language Commission’s recent competition that asked for a rewrite of a piece of gobbledygook.

http://www.clearest.co.uk/files/Pikestaff48.pdf

We are especially proud of Miles as he’d participated in one of our writing workshops just before he submitted his winning entry.

The competition specifically asked readers to spot the error and the structural problem with the following bullet-pointed list.

If you use your account to make payments when you:
do not have enough money in your account and have not agreed a planned
overdraft with us, or
the payment takes you over the limit of your planned overdraft;
you may have to pay bank fees as a result.

Our earlier blog ‘Just give it to me in Bullet Points’ may have been a good place for the original writer to start.

More information on Write’s workshops.

Medicine labels - keeping it clear

2011-04-29T16:53:00.000+12:00

In Britain, there's a move to make the labels on medicines easier to read:

The switch to clearer language will help make sure that patients take their medicines as they should. If this does not happen, the drugs are likely to be less effective and may not work at all. Patients also run the risk of getting unpleasant side effects, which in some cases may cause serious harm.

The change has been informed by a research project run by the University of Leeds, who user tested labels before and after plain English changes.

Reading and writing for health

2011-04-20T15:49:00.012+12:00

People looking for health information have to decide where to get their information from. Health information is everywhere—in advertising, magazines, television dramas, in brochures in the GP’s waiting room and fact sheets at the pharmacy, and on the internet. But it’s not all easy to read.

Health literacy – using health information
Using health information requires more than just the ability to read and understand the words. People who study literacy use the term ‘health literacy’ to describe a person’s ability to read, understand, and then use health information. It takes a complex set of skills to use health information to make decisions about your own or your family’s health.

International surveys show that poor health literacy costs us millions of dollars every year.
When people do not understand written information, they cannot use it to manage their health well.

Ask three key questions
Everybody benefits from health information written simply. One of the best tips I’ve seen for writing or giving health information is called ‘Ask Me 3’. These are three questions a patient should ask in every conversation about their health. Health professionals can use them to give health information. The questions are:

What is my problem?
What do I need to do?
Why is it important for me to do this?

Use the right words, simply
Writers can use Ask Me 3 to plan what they write. Here at Write, we’re preparing an ebook of plain English alternatives for medical words. Words like jaundice, nutrients, pneumonia, neonatal, intravenous, postoperative, and angina are used in daily life. However, you can’t assume that your readers understand medical words.

You may want to continue to use a particular medical term. You don’t have to replace a difficult word in order to write simply. Plain English is about writing clearly, so explain the word(s) the first time you use them and use them in short sentences.

Visit the New Zealand health literacy website
Read more about Ask Me 3

Plain English for complex information

2011-04-14T12:57:00.004+12:00

Recently, I have been thinking about how to use plain English for complex information -- the particular challenges, and how to attack them.

I gave a presentation to the Wellington branch of the Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand (TCANZ) on 4 April.

I have made a narrated video (16 minutes, 10MB) of the slides. Let me know what you think.

Plain English for complex information from James Burgess on Vimeo.

Signing the way

2011-04-08T15:41:00.000+12:00

If you want to know why it is vital to signpost the text that follows a heading, you need look no further than the simple, yet effective, traffic sign.

In traffic, you may have only a short time to look at a sign, know what it means, what is to follow, and how you need to comply.

Most signs you see on New Zealand roads today use internationally known shapes (such as circles, diamonds, and rectangles) and symbols (such as silhouettes that show pedestrian crossing, road narrows, slippery surface, and roadworks). Having easy-to-follow and easily recognisable signs is important for domestic and international travellers.

New Zealand road signs fall into three broad categories: compulsory, warning, and information. Compulsory signs tell you what you can and cannot do, and usually are in red or blue. Warning signs alert you to a specific hazard ahead, are usually diamond-shaped, and coloured yellow and black (permanent hazard) and orange and black (temporary hazard). Information signs that give you useful facts are rectangular and come in varying colours and sizes.

A blog I read says Transit Lanes ‘are the lanes that have signs up informing you of the correct usage of the lanes that are written so small and with so much information on the sign that you give up reading it after you nearly crash trying’.

I beg to differ. The ‘Transit Lane’ sign is one example of an effective sign.

Without the sign’s visual cues, they might have got a longer sign that read: ‘Transit Lane starts. You must be a passenger vehicle, with two or more people to use this Transit Lane. You can use this lane as a Transit Lane between 6am and 10am from Monday to Friday’.

Then they really would have missed the message as they tootled along. Even if stuck in traffic.

Instead, the sign has a title, the wording ‘T2’, the days and time of day you need to heed the sign, and the graphic of two people in a car.
All this vital information on a sign of restricted size that allows for only minimal text. The colours, silhouette, and sign shape give us instant clues to the rest of the sign’s message and its meaning. They capture our attention quickly and effectively.

The only information not explicit on the sign is the other types of vehicle, such as passenger service vehicle, cycle, and motorcycle, that may also use the Transit Lane.

On the communications highway, we must always be aware of the various ways people absorb vital information, and how much time they have to understand it. Otherwise we just might find ourselves facing a very real and dangerous misunderstanding.

So steer your eyes to the signs section of your Official Road Code and see what you might have missed. The ‘About signs’ section of the New Zealand Road Code is at http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/roadcode/about-signs/main-types.html

Simplicity makes your message stronger

2011-04-04T16:33:00.001+12:00

In October 2008, Apple introduced its next-generation MacBook laptop computer. At the launch, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs invited design guru Jonathan Ive onstage to explain how they made a notebook that was significantly lighter and sturdier. Ive told the audience that Apple’s new design eliminated two-thirds of the computer’s major structural parts. He said reducing the number of parts naturally made the computer thinner; but contrary to what you’d expect, eliminating parts also made it more rigid and robust — the computer was stronger. That’s an analogy for writing. Eliminate unnecessary words, and your message will be stronger. According to Ive, ‘We are absolutely consumed by trying to develop a solution that is very simple, because as physical beings we understand clarity.’ This anecdote is from a webinar by Carmine Gallo, a columnist for Bloomberg Businessweek . She wrote The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. She says, ‘Your customers demand simplicity, and simplicity requires that you eliminate anything that clutters the user experience — whether in product design, website navigation, marketing and advertising materials, or presentation slides. Say ‘no’ more often than ‘yes.’’ That counts for words, too.

'Just give it to me in bullet points'

2011-03-30T11:26:00.003+13:00

Have you noticed how often this catch cry is sounded? — a catch cry usually by managers and team leaders to hard-pressed writers.

Bullet points may not be the magic bullet

Writers have lots of presentational tools at their disposal. Bullets are only one of them. I’ve grown suspicious of what people who ask for information in bullet points really mean, and whether what they get is what they want. And I’ve also grown suspicious of what writers think is meant by ‘Just give it to me in bullet points’.

Bullet points should form part of the writer’s overall plan

Like other aspects of writing, bullet points need to be planned. Writers should be able to justify using them. And writers need to be able to distinguish whether they are using bullets to:

list single word items
deconstruct a sentence
summarise main messages.

Writers need to consider what information to convey in bullets

Writers may argue that bullets convey information more concisely or more clearly. I would argue that that’s only if the writer has figured out what they’re trying to be concise and clear about. Writers argue that bullets are more effective than paragraphs — I would argue that many bullet points I see are longing to be paragraphs!

Bullet points work as a summary of main messages

When managers say ‘Just give it to me in bullet points’, what they probably mean is ‘Give me a summary.’ Bullets look dynamic and that’s why we use them. But we should be sparing with them. And it would be unfair to reproach bullet points just because managers ask for them.

There was once upon a time life without bullet points

Computers provide a range of possibilities for presenting content that’s easy on the eye and reader friendly. Those of us who remember the typewriter didn’t have bullet points. You had to convey information using the likes of well-constructed sentences and paragraphs.

Is it a coincidence that the rise of bullet points is accompanied by the demise of the ability to string together a correctly constructed sentence or a recognisably coherent paragraph?

We could blame the computer

It’s only since the advent of the computer that we have bullet points to enhance our writing lives. Bullets first appeared, innocently enough perhaps, in PowerPoint presentations. The computer programme offered you a bullet point and you took it. Then it offered you another one. It would be difficult to come across anyone who’s watched a PowerPoint presentation and not been overwhelmed by the number of bullets they’ve been faced with.

Links on bullet points

The M Factor gives instructions on “Good use of bullet points”.

Speaking About Presenting reports on some research that shows slides full of bullet points don’t work.

Plain English is best for communicating risk, an Australian study finds

2011-03-23T17:05:00.000+13:00

Scientists and academics have to be able to communicate clearly about risk — but too often, unclear language gets in the way. A new Australian study has found clear evidence that when students and academics are taught how to write in plain English, their readers notice the benefits. Not only are plain English documents easier to read, the study found, but readers take much less time to read them ... and understand them better too.

The study was carried out by the Australian Centre for Risk Analysis (ACERA) at Melbourne University. ACERA started with the assumption that ‘clear prose can improve science, decision-making and policy by presenting scientific ideas unambiguously, reducing internal review time and stakeholder misinterpretation.’ (We won’t be picky about that overly long sentence — their hearts are in the right place!)

The ACERA study taught workshops for students, academics, and scientists on plain English writing techniques, based on a book by Richard Lanham, Revising Prose (2006). Participants’ writing was scored before and after the workshops. Their reading and logical structure improved an average of 62%, the study found, and ‘lard’ (unnecessary language) reduced by an average of 30%.

At Write, we find that using people’s own writing is the most powerful way for them to learn. The ACERA study used the same method, with participants providing short examples of their writing before the workshops. The following example clearly shows the improvement:

Original: (28 words) Pelicans may also be vulnerable to direct oiling, but the lack of mortality data despite numerous spills in areas frequented by the species suggests that it practices avoidance.

Revision: (10 words) Pelicans seem to survive oil spills by avoiding the oil.

A bouquet to ACERA for adding to the evidence that plain English saves time, boosts communication, and improves decision making.

http://www.acera.unimelb.edu.au/materials/endorsed/0805.pdf

How to write with purpose

2011-03-06T13:51:00.010+13:00

In last month's survey, we asked you to name the the problem you find most often in the documents produced by your organisation. Overwhelmingly, you told us the most common problem was lack of clear purpose.

Why is the purpose of the document so important? Why do you need to make sure the purpose is clear at the beginning of the document? Your reader could just as well ask, 'why should I read this document?' or 'what's in it for me?'

Stating the purpose clearly at the beginning of the document lets your reader know why they should take the time to read further. Without a purpose statement, you run the risk of losing your reader's attention and of not getting the result you're looking for.

Don't be shy. If your title or headline doesn't completely capture your purpose, blatantly include a section called 'Purpose of this document'. It feels a little odd at first, but it helps to clarify your thinking and to structure your writing. You don't always have to head up the purpose section in this way. Later you'll branch out and think of many more engaging headings. Just make sure you keep your reader in mind and keep the purpose upfront. This way you'll have happier readers and be more likely to get results from your writing -- and maybe compliments too!

See the results from February's survey here.

Have your say in this month's survey.

Jargon-buster free ebook

2011-02-16T13:26:00.001+13:00

Check out our new free e-booklet - Unravelling legal jargon. It's on the homepage of our website.

I won't give you a link directly to it, because also on the homepage is a link to our 30 second survey. We'd love you to take a moment to tell us the biggest problem you see in business documents that come over your desk.

By the way, we change the homepage often, so please keep checking.

Waffle equals waste

2011-02-09T18:17:00.005+13:00

Bill English doesn't seem too impressed with government writing. In a media conference today, his message was pretty clear: 'there's too much waffle in government departments and it has to stop'.

We know that hundreds of government employees do care about clear, purposeful writing (many of them vie for a place in the annual WriteMark Plain English Awards), but I don't think many members of the public will disagree with Mr English.

That 'waffle' --- evidence of woolly thinking, complex processes, lack of purpose, and poor language skills --- chews up taxpayer dollars. Waffle equals waste. And at a time when the economic news is still somewhat sobering, we expect better.

Read the TV3 article

End of Quality Web Content workshops

2011-02-09T11:29:00.005+13:00

(A joint message from Write and Rachel McAlpine)

For seven years Write has offered Rachel McAlpine's training workshops for web writers in New Zealand. These workshops were licensed under the Quality Web Content (QWC) brand. The time has come to terminate the QWC agreement and this year Write will develop its own face-to-face workshops in web writing.

All Rachel McAlpine's new e-learning courses carry the Contented brand. They are all online and available worldwide for groups of up to 1000.

Both companies are building on obvious strengths: Write's expertise in live training workshops and Contented's success with international e-learning courses.

We will continue to work together in many other ways as we respond to the needs of a changing market.

Information about Write's workshops: http://www.write.co.nz/
Information about just-in-time online courses: http://www.contented.com/

Stormy forecast for plain language

2011-02-03T21:57:00.005+13:00

How do you make specialised subjects accessible to a non-specialised audience? How do you convey technical information with clarity and precision, in a way that the layperson can understand?

We're often asked these sorts of questions. And it doesn't take long before someone brings up the perennial charge of 'plain language = dumbing down'.

But we think making your language clear is 'smartening up'!

A recent post by Skyler Goldman on the American Meteorological Society blog wonders if the messages about such topics as climate change are getting through. 'Making more scientific work available to the public in plain language would increase awareness.'

Read the full post here: http://blog.ametsoc.org/uncategorized/making-the-public-aware-of-the-science/

New Zealand law requires financial advisers to communicate clearly

2011-01-31T09:39:00.002+13:00

Moving on from our previous post about US financial advisers and plain English, New Zealand advisers are already required to make themselves clear.

Code Standard 6 came into force on 1 December 2010, and says: ‘An Authorised Financial Adviser must behave professionally in all dealings with a client, and communicate clearly, concisely, and effectively.’

Read the full Code at http://financialadvisercode.govt.nz/

Catriona Grover, a partner at Kensington Swan law firm, presented on the new Code at the 11th Annual Super Funds Summit in March 2010. She said that the Capital Market Development Taskforce ‘recommends simplifying and standardising disclosure documentation’. This will help investors know exactly what they are investing in. So, expect disclosure documents to, in Catriona’s words:

‘feature prescribed wording in concise plain English
be comprised of two parts, a very short prescribed overview and a longer "further information" document’.

Plain language legislation in the USA requires financial advisers to write clearly

2011-01-27T09:02:00.002+13:00

Plain language legislation in the United States is starting to have an effect. Financial advisers are getting nervous about their 31 March deadline, when they must give their clients investment philosophies, fee schedules, and ‘conflict of interest’ documents that are written in plain English.

http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20110123/REG/301239983

Hopefully, some of the new documents will be good enough for a ClearMark award (the US equivalent of the WriteMark Plain English Awards in New Zealand). Our own Lynda Harris will be one of the international judges for ClearMark this year.

http://centerforplainlanguage.org/awards/

http://www.plainenglishawards.org.nz/

Do ‘Kiwis’ really say what they mean?

2011-01-21T12:42:00.001+13:00

On Monday, I read (and laughed with) this article from the Washington Post.

On Tuesday, a friend commented that she loved being a Kiwi (a New Zealander) because ‘we say what we mean—we don’t hide behind silly words’.

By Friday, and after a week back at work, I’m still pondering her comment. Eight years as a Plain English Specialist in New Zealand, I have to suggest that ‘saying what we mean’ hasn’t always been my experience—especially in the world of business communication.

For example ‘management has become cognisant of the necessity of eliminating vegetation from the periphery of the facility’ surely means ‘we need to weed our gardens’.

We’d love to know what you think? Or to read examples of writing you’ve seen recently.

The unfortunate result of a new Google feature

2011-01-16T13:17:00.015+13:00

On Sunday mornings, from the comfort of my bed, I often find myself +iPhone catching up on blogs or twitter posts. The Siegel + Gale post about the Google feature that rates the reading level of web pages dispelled any early morning grogginess! I was at my computer in a flash to check it out.

I'm sure Google had the best of intentions when it created this extra feature — mainly to help students, teachers, and researchers I believe — but it certainly came with a sting in the tail. The feature rates sites 'basic', intermediate', and 'advanced'. Unfortunately its release immediately prompted headlines such as How Smart or Dumb is Your Site? In other words, highly readable sites using very clear language are 'dumb', while those that use jargon and complex structures are 'smart'.

Blogger Sarah Negugogor put it beautifully when she said, 'if Google had used different words for the reading levels, it might have kept people from rushing to make value judgments. If the levels were named “Clear,” “Intermediate,” and “Convoluted,” do you think people would be bragging about how convoluted their site’s language was?'

Read the full post

http://www.siegelgale.com/blog/new-google-feature-rates-your-website%E2%80%99s-reading-level/

My blackberry isn't working

2011-01-10T10:39:00.000+13:00

As advocates for plain language, we loved this clip. We hope you will, too.

Giving clear instructions to jurors

2011-01-06T11:12:00.000+13:00

Being a juror can be a somewhat daunting experience. But clear instructions can make all the difference.

In Texas, proposed changes to the Rules of Civil Procedure include jury instructions rewritten in plain language. Lawyers, judges, and court officials know that jurors don't always understand the instructions they're given or what their responsibilities are as members of a jury. The new instructions, if approved, will remove legalese and clarify points that people find confusing.

Read more about the new juror instructions in Texas

And check out the recently revised information for New Zealand jurors on the Ministry of Justice website. (By the way, Write worked on part of the Ministry's Access to Justice project.)

Read the information for jurors in New Zealand

Please use the comment box to tell us about instructions you've read recently -- those that were great to use, and those that caused you trouble.

Fun with grammar

2011-01-05T15:52:00.000+13:00

Just before Christmas, we received this enquiry through our website:

kia ora
to my shame I don't regularly look at your website but someone sent me a link recently and as I scanned through it my eye landed on the piece about grammar that said english doesn't have rules it has patterns the article said you could split an infinitive start a sentence with a conjunction and finish a sentence with a preposition it then continued with a number of rules that have to be followed when using commas and apostrophes and so on which made me wonder which rules we have to follow and which ones we dont ive done a lot of writing and editing and following and writing style guides and i think you have to have rules that must be followed except when there is a good reason for breaking them take the split infinitive for example it can be the best way of expressing an idea to put an adverb between the to and the verb but if you just take the rule away people start putting whole adverbial phrases in there and it really does become hard to read i think there should be rules about capitals at the beginning of sentences and full stops at the end if we just do away with those rules english becomes hard to read the greeks used to write in capital letters with no puctuation and because it was hard to read people invented punctuation etc to make it easier its a good job i followed spelling rules or you would be totally confused happy christmas

We thought it was too good not to share, so we asked Peter Russell, the sender, if he minded us blogging his letter - and our response. Thanks, Peter, you're a good sport.

Here's the response:

Dear Peter
When you are trying to make something – whether it is a boat, a coat, or a sentence – it is important to follow the right pattern for the job. If you ignore large parts of the pattern, or don’t follow any pattern at all, you’ll end up with a mess. People with heaps of experience, talent, and skill can afford to take liberties with the pattern, because they understand their tools, their materials, and the impact of both on the effect they’re trying to achieve.

Nonetheless, the pattern is not a rule – in the commonly used sense of the term ‘rule’. If you put a keel on the roof of your cabin instead of under the hull, it won’t work – and all the people at the yacht club will have a good laugh at your expense, but you have not broken a rule. If you make one sleeve long and the other short, it might look odd, but you have not broken a rule. And if you insist on inventing your own spelling (or typing an email with no punctuation in order to tease your friendly local grammarians), your communication may be flawed, but the grammar police will not arrest you.

With that small change in terminology – rule to pattern – we agree with all that you’ve written. It is important to follow the patterns.

Peter may be please to know that we edited the article on the website that prompted his email, adding the line: "Below, we discuss some of the patterns you should follow if you don't want to confuse people." Thanks again, Peter.

Do you really want to write that in Comic Sans?

2010-12-23T10:06:00.002+13:00

All fonts have a personality and a purpose. Get the font wrong, and your message and credibility will suffer.

Take a look at this great website, and you’ll see what we mean!

Words of the year

2010-12-21T19:02:00.004+13:00

Read about the words of the year, courtesy of The New York Times.

New York Times words of the year

Two rants about language

2010-12-16T11:03:00.003+13:00

For us, Stephen Fry’s rant about language is bittersweet, but too good to not share. Entertaining, clever, painful. Honestly, Stephen, we love language too.

And what it comes down to, as he says, is ‘context, convention and circumstance are all’.

What do you think? We’d love to hear.

Watch Stephen Fry

This guy has been bugged by English spelling all his life. And it’s a long life…

Watch Ed Ronthaler

Talking about 'Writing the Future'

2010-12-14T17:53:00.005+13:00

We were thrilled to take part in the ‘Writing the Future’ colloquium on 2 and 3 December 2010. The colloquium drew together a wide range of people involved with teaching writing in the tertiary education sector, along with a few of us from the public and private sectors.

Mary McLaughlin attended the whole conference, and other Write people staffed a stall at the venue. Duncan Sarkies was also there, and presented a paper on the creative writing process. For all of us, it was a great opportunity to meet peers, gather ideas, and share perspectives.

The range of papers was terrific, with five keynote papers and 17 parallel sessions over the 2 days. Some particular highlights for us were:
• Gregory O’Brien on the relationships between poetry, art, art criticism, and non-fiction
• Natalie Savery on supporting dyslexic students’ academic writing in tertiary classes
• Elizabeth Gray on the intersections between creative and professional writing
• Peter Wood on being an academic writing on architecture for a public audience
• Polly Kobleva on marking as a writing process
• Anna Taylor on the art and craft of writing.

And as with all great conferences, we enjoyed the thoughtful organisation, good food, and the friendly, collegial atmosphere. Thanks to the Tertiary Writing Network for running such a successful event.

‘Not just words’ — Mary sums up her paper on document design and plain English
In the paper, I’ve talked largely about plain English and design in terms of function — in terms of how they work. I’ve looked at questions like:
• does this document work well for the reader?
• can the reader use the form?
• are language and design working together to help the reader get the main messages?

But at its best, plain English does more than work well. It appeals to the senses and the mind, to our human desires for simplicity, grace, elegance, space. And I believe that when we focus on design as part of the way we communicate, it brings home to us the aesthetic value of clear, precise writing. It reminds us that we don’t just want to convey a message; we want our readers to feel refreshed, calm, cared for. We want our readers to savour our words … and the forms in which we present them.

English: you're doing it wrong

2010-12-14T14:26:00.008+13:00

'A brisk run around the city gives me plenty of time to spot apostrophe misuse on signs everywhere,' says Ann Aitken Worth on her Stuff blog. Smitten by the same obsession with bad punctuation, we loved what Ann had to say. And we enjoyed comment number 6 too!

Read English: you're doing it wrong

Better not read this if you're a vampire

2010-12-03T09:59:00.000+13:00

Sandra Fisher-Martins is at it again. This time she's found a great article about information design and blood test results. Take a look -- you'll be inspired to ask for clearly presented lab reports next time you go to the doctor.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_bloodwork/all/1

Wellington, sun, and fun: Wellington love letter

2010-12-02T11:35:00.001+13:00

It’s nearly Christmas, so Helen decided it was time to blog a fun spot. She says:

I’ve been tootling (there’s a Helenism!) about on Twitter for the last few months getting to grips with how it works—partly for fun and partly for Write.

This clip, Wellington love letter, was first tweeted about roughly a month ago. It’s now had more than 41,000 hits. The power of social media—enjoy!

Writing the future

2010-12-01T09:24:00.003+13:00

We're looking forward to being part of the Tertiary Writing Network's 'Writing the Future' colloquium later this week. The colloquium will be held at Victoria University, Pipitea Campus, on 2-3 December 2010.

Mary McLaughlin will be presenting a paper titled 'Not just words: document design and the plain English of the future'. We'll also have a stall at the colloquium, so if you're there too, stop and say 'hi'.

Check back next week and we'll let you know how the colloquium went.

You can find out more about the colloquium at:
http://www.tertiarywritingnetwork.org.nz/2010_colloquium.html

Clear writing in Europe

2010-11-28T13:13:00.010+13:00

We're pleased to hear that Sandra Fisher-Martins of Portugues Claro had a great day at the 'Clear Writing throughout Europe' conference on 26 November. Sandra spoke to the conference about breaking down barriers to plain language in Portugal.

The conference was organised by the European Commission. Check out their useful booklet with advice on how to write clearly. You'll find it at the link below, under the heading 'Clear writing guide'.

http://ec.europa.eu/translation/index_en.htm

ClearMark meets WriteMark

2010-11-16T23:02:00.008+13:00

The organisers of the ClearMark Awards -- the US plain language awards -- have asked Write's CEO Lynda Harris to be a judge in 2011. The first ClearMark Awards were held in April this year. Lynda is thrilled to be taking part in the second event, and more than a little proud that the ClearMark Awards take their inspiration from New Zealand's own WriteMark Awards! If you're going to be in Washington in April, mark this event in your diary!

To find out more, visit

http://centerforplainlanguage.org/awards/

Couldn't help it...

2010-11-15T09:35:00.003+13:00

But can I use it?

2010-11-11T13:54:00.004+13:00

Today is World Usability Day. This year's theme is communication. According to Elizabeth Rosenzweig, founder of World Usability Day, the day will 'serve as an impetus to creating greater awareness for designs, products and services that improve and facilitate communication around the world'.

Usability most often applies to websites. When we're not talking about websites, usability is generally called universal design.

Plain English and usability go hand-in-hand. For people to understand your website, form, manual, email, presentation, or report, you need to communicate clearly. And you need to make sure that your whole audience finds your communication easy to use.

Some usability experts are Whitney Quesenbery, Jakob Nielsen, and Gerry McGovern. New Zealand companies that specialise in usability are AccEase and Optimal Usability.

For information about World Usability Day, see http://worldusabilityday.org/

For information about universal design, see http://www.accease.com/pmwiki.php?n=Publications.UniversalDesign

For information about Whitney Quesenbery, see http://wqusability.com/

For information about Jakob Nielsen, see http://useit.com/

For information about Gerry McGovern, see http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress

For information about AccEase, see http://accease.com/

For information about Optimal Usability, see http://optimalusability.com/

Travel with a sharpie

2010-11-11T11:30:00.002+13:00

If you spot typos everywhere you go, here's the story of a roadtrip with a difference.

Engaging legal help just got easier

2010-11-03T07:58:00.003+13:00

We jumped at the chance to be part of an international team working on a document rewrite project for Clarity 2010, the plain language legal conference held in October.

Several months of work later, here are the results of our project published on the Clarity website. Watch for more projects from around the world to be published soon.

http://blog.clarity2010.com/engaging-legal-help-just-got-easier/

Foreign words that express a sentiment better than English words

2010-11-01T12:09:00.003+13:00

Have you ever discovered a particular word in another language that expresses something more perfectly than any English words ever could?

Check out this entertaining article posted on the Matador Network with words from many different languages.

http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world/

Obama signs Plain Writing Act of 2010

2010-10-28T10:25:00.001+13:00

On 13 October, the US President signed into law the Plain Writing Act of 2010, which requires federal agencies to use plain writing in government documents for the public.

‘This is a triumphant moment for all those who support plain language use,’ said Dr Annetta Cheek, Chair of the Center for Plain Language, long-time advocate for plain writing. ‘The Act defines plain writing as writing that the audience can understand and use because it is clear, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices of plain writing.’

You can see:
the official statement by the White House Press Secretary at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/13/statement-press-secretary
the full text of the Act at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgibin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h946enr.txt.pdf.

Clarity Conference 2010 - Portugal

2010-10-19T17:05:00.004+13:00

Here is a little blog from Anne-Marie about day two at the Clarity Conference.

Clarity 2010 – Day two

The second day of the Clarity conference continued with themes linking government, web writing, and training developments happening around the world. A recurring theme was how to show the $ benefits of using plain language.

The plenary session got a taste of some of the studies Joe Kimble’s updated book with cite when it comes out next year.

Topping off a very successful conference was the gala dinner held at a palace just out of central Lisbon. We were able to sample typical Portugese food in a stately setting with our new friends.
As night went on, plain language specialists showed what a multi-talented bunch they are with impromptu singing, guitar playing, and even a performance of a Victor Borge classic—‘Inflationary Language’, before we danced the night away!

A natural follow-up for the participants at this conference will be the next PLAIN conference, to be held in Stockholm in June 2011. Organisation is well under way, and the call for papers will be out soon.

Clarity Conference 2010 - Portugal

2010-10-18T14:28:00.017+13:00

While Anne-Marie is in Portugal, I'll be posting the blogs she sends.

Clarity 2010 - Day one

The first day of the Clarity 2010 conference has gone very well. We have seen some fascinating presentations on everything from explanations of world water footprints using information design to resources on disaster preparedness.

Other highlights were the latest report from the international plain language working group, updates on what's happening in places as diverse as Sweden, Brazil, and South Africa, and commentary on language used during the global financial crisis.

Our small New Zealand delegation is making the most of the opportunity to talk to people from around the world, sharing our experience and learning from others.

And our hosts from Portugues Claro are doing a fabulous job of providing translations for all sessions, catering with delicious food and coffee, and greeting every request with a smile.

The conference venue is the Universidade Nova de Lisboa with its award winning backdrop of Lisbon and wonderfully mild weather and you have the perfect setting for an international conference!

Access all areas

2010-10-05T12:06:00.002+13:00

One person in five has a disability. Over half of those people have more than one disability.

These figures are familiar — but did you think about the able-bodied reader who left their reading glasses at home?

A conversation with Robyn Hunt and Mike Osborne at AccEase has got us thinking about what’s involved in making information accessible, and who needs it.

AccEase works with clients who communicate with disabled customers. Their watchword is ‘All of the information to all of the people, all of the time’.

When they talk about people with disabilities, their list is longer than you may first consider. What about people who cannot hold a page or a pen because of shakes or fine motor problems? Or who have a cognitive disability caused by their medication? People often assume that blind people read Braille — but the Braille-reading population in New Zealand numbers only a few hundred.

Then there are other barriers to accessing information. Less than half of New Zealanders have their own internet connection, and those that do may be using old or non-standard equipment. Around 40% of working-age New Zealanders have difficulty reading.

Mention ‘accessibility’ and people think ‘websites’ — but accessibility is an issue for paper-based documents, and any other way information is presented. Did you know that glossy paper can create glare for a reader who has low vision? Or that grey text on white is as difficult to read on paper as it is on screen?

Accessibility is a feature of plain English. The reader may access your words on a website, in a form, or read aloud by a human or a machine. You want the reader to read the words once, understand them, and act on them.

Robyn describes disabled people as ‘the canary in the coalmine’ for accessibility. If the words and their format don’t work for disabled people, the rest of the population may struggle too.

Visit the AccEase website

Visit Robyn Hunt's blog

Punctuation: I’m relaxing my rules — slightly

2010-10-01T10:32:00.004+13:00

When I first started teaching grammar, it was to people who had English as a second language. They craved rules. They wanted me to tell them exactly when they were supposed to use a certain verb tense, and exactly how many exceptions there were to that rule — and could I please list the exceptions?

So I took the ‘rule’ approach to teaching punctuation. I had my three rules for when to use commas, and specific scenarios for when you put the full stop inside the quotation mark, and when you put the full stop outside.

And then in the last few weeks, real life has come along with a bang. I’ve been out of the classroom and into the world of editing, and I’ve realised that, while the rules work most of the time, sometimes they just don’t fit. What people have done in their documents doesn’t work according to the rule book, but the punctuation works perfectly well anyway.

I’ve looked up lots of different books on punctuation, and I’m amazed at how often the authors disagree over the finer points.

So now, humbler but wiser, I’m not throwing the rule book away, but I’m more open to creative punctuation. After all, the only reason punctuation’s there is to help get the message across more clearly.

To serif or not to serif? That is not the question!

2010-09-24T11:56:00.002+12:00

Do you need to decide on a font to use for a publication or for your organisation? Don’t limit your discussions to whether you should choose serif or sans serif. (A serif is a fine line finishing the main strokes of a letter, such as at the top and bottom of a Y.)

Several factors affect legibility and readability, and a much broader range of fonts are now available to organisations than ever in the past. Factors include point size, x-height, leading, character spacing, alignment, and typestyles that can affect legibility and readability of type.

Because of this variety of factors, it is very difficult to design a research study that gives a definitive conclusion on such a fundamental issue as ‘serif’ or ‘sans serif’. Indeed, in a literature review of readability research I did some years ago, I found strong research-based opinions for both extremes, plus ‘it doesn’t matter’ in the middle.

This is a good literature review of over 50 empirical studies.

In this study, the researcher made interesting discoveries about the impact of point size, and gives reasons for preferring sans-serif faces for online publication.

Wheildon’s ‘Type and Layout’, published in 1995, and based on research done in Australia, has some interesting findings. I wrote an article on it at the time, a rewritten version of which is still on the web.

Wheildon is a strong supporter of serif fonts in print, but his research has been criticised for using a less legible font as his basis. However, his conclusions on line length and line spacing are strongly supported by researchers across the entire spectrum of opinion.

Saying what you mean

2010-09-19T21:05:00.004+12:00

'Well done is better than well said. But, when it comes to plain language in business, well said is easier said than done. For organisations to mean what they say, they must first learn to say what they mean.'

So says South African Christine Leonardi, freelance writer and communications practitioner, in a brilliant article about the need for plain language in corporate communications.

Read the article

'Brainstrain' winners took it on the chin

2010-09-07T17:40:00.009+12:00

Since the WriteMark Plain English Awards began in 2006 offering 'Brainstrain' awards for documents and websites that frustrate and confuse, only two organisations have fronted up to collect their dubious awards at the ceremony --- until now.

In Friday's ceremony, held at Parliament, the Commerce Commission collected an award for the worst 'Brainstrain' website and The Office for Senior Citizens collected one for worst 'Brainstrain' document. Both organisations vowed to change their ways --- a great result!

Read about the winners and finalists for all the positive awards too.

Congratulations to the WriteMark Plain English Award winners!

2010-09-07T17:21:00.002+12:00

Read about the winners and finalists on the Awards website.

And special congratulations to the Office of the Auditor General for winning the supreme award for Plain English Champion: Best Organisation!

Demand plain English in Plain English Week

2010-09-02T08:37:00.005+12:00

'What do you mean? '

These are the words we want everyone to use this week.

Why? Because this is Plain English Week --- a time when we celebrate the best, and refuse to accept the worst. You have a right to understand. So if someone gives you something that is poorly written, say: 'What do you mean?'

Rachel McAlpine, chair of the lobby group Plain English Power, has written about Plain English Week here: http://contented.com/contented/2010/plain-language-even-buskers-need-it/

So has Robyn Hunt, a tireless advocate for making technology accessible: http://www.plainenglish.org.nz/index.php.
This one is Robyn, too: http://www.accease.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.WhatsHot

The highlight of the week will be the WriteMark Plain English Awards, on in the Banquet Hall of Parliament tomorrow night. Watch the Awards website or your newspapers to find out the best --- and the worst --- plain English organisations, documents, and websites in New Zealand. Read more here: http://business.scoop.co.nz/2010/08/19/new-zealand-a-world-plain-english-leader

So why not join Plain English Power?

And remember to celebrate Plain English Week by saying: 'What do you mean?'

How words 'make the grade' to get in the dictionary

2010-08-23T16:59:00.003+12:00

A friend recently referred me to this article by Max Davidson of the Telegraph newspaper. Some of the words that don't make it to the dictionary are still rather inspired! Check out Max's article here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7948875/When-is-a-word-not-a-word-When-it-doesnt-make-it-into-the-dictionary.html

A business case — the first step on the road to plain English

2010-08-09T15:03:00.002+12:00

Plain English is not just a ‘nice to have’. It’s an essential tool for boosting your business’s bottom line. In-house, your people save time reading your business writing. And plain English makes it easier for your customers to do business with you.

Am I preaching to the converted? Are you itching to transform the way your business writes, but unsure where to start? Here’s our approach to getting that transformation under way.

Read ‘Making a business case for plain English’

Using plain language to explain a doctoral thesis — in just 3 minutes

2010-08-03T22:54:00.002+12:00

Recently Moira Smith was a guest speaker at one of our weekly staff meetings here at Write. Moira presented her entry in the University of Otago ‘Three Minute Thesis’ (3MT) competition.

Moira’s a research fellow and PhD candidate in the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago in Wellington. Her research is about the food environment for children’s sport. She started her research this year and recently won the Wellington heat of the 3MT competition.

What’s the 3MT competition all about?
Students speak about their thesis topic for 3 minutes and are allowed to show just one PowerPoint slide. They need to communicate the essence of their research in a succinct, engaging presentation. They’ll answer the question ‘what’s your thesis about?’ in a way that a lay audience can readily understand.

Judges look for appropriate communication style. They consider how well the audience understands the purpose and scope of the research topic, and whether the presentation makes the audience want to know more. Speak for longer than 3 minutes and you’ll be disqualified!

What are the benefits of 3MT?
3MT is all about effective communication. Researchers develop their communication skills. The audience gets to hear about research projects in language they understand. The competition helps to bring research into the mainstream — and to bring plain language into the academic world!

‘Thesis Idol’
This is only the second year of the competition in New Zealand, but public interest is growing. Students will have a studio audience of 400 at the Dunedin finals, which will be on Cue TV (SKY Chanel 110) in early September. More details soon.

We wish Moira well for the next round of the competition! She’ll be going to Dunedin for the final in late August. The winner goes on to compete in Brisbane at the Australasian final. Our fingers are crossed!

Carrots and the art of writing clearly

2010-07-29T17:05:00.002+12:00

For the first week of this term, my 12-year-old son had to keep a food diary. He recorded everything he ate and his mood at various times during the day. A food diary is an intriguing tool that makes you think carefully about what you eat. For a week, gone were chippies and biscuits and illicit sweets on the way home from school. In were nutritious snacks, healthy lunches, and lots of vegetables for dinner — which he even insisted on cooking one night! (To be fair, my boy does enjoy his vegetables, with or without the influence of a food diary!) We noticed a big increase in the number of carrots we consumed that week.

The food diary activity is finished now, but its memory lingers on. Carrot sticks regularly feature in the lunch box — long may they continue to be the snack of choice. As for the moods — pretty good overall.

So I hope the food diary will have a lasting impact. Perhaps not enough to banish junk food forever, but enough to make a noticeable difference for a few days that might stretch to weeks. Maybe carrots and cooking will become a habit.

For plain English writing (well, this blog is called ‘Write clearly’, after all), the equivalent of the food diary is a writing standard. It makes you think carefully about what you write. A writing standard consists of a few clear statements against which you can measure features of your own or others’ writing. Is your purpose clear at the beginning? Does the order of your information work for the reader of your document? Are your sentences short and straightforward?

By following a few essential principles of plain English — nutrition for writing — you can improve your writing so it works well for the reader.

Once you’ve used a writing standard several times, you’ll find the principles start to become second nature. Plain English will become a healthy habit your readers will thank you for. Carrots, anyone?

On a scale of 1 – 10, how would you rate the generosity of this letter?

2010-07-26T16:19:00.000+12:00

I used to get lots of personal letters — and I used to write lots as well. Sadly, because of email entering our world, it’s pretty rare now that a real letter drops through my box.

So when I’m talking about writing letters, I find myself thinking about words and expressions in a different way. What you get on paper looks different from what you get on screen.

I’m not sure if that’s why I get to see so many customer- service letters that don’t look like customer service at all. I’m talking about the so-called standard letters — written as a one-size-fits-all. These often have such a bureaucratic, mass-produced effect that I sometimes wonder if they were produced as a joke.

Letter writers should consider being generous
I learned something about writing letters at a forum I attended recently. The presenter suggested that writers should be generous to their readers — and that they could rate that generosity on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being ungenerous and 10 being very generous.

I decided I’d try out this tip at my next training session. My participants were from a customer service area and their job was to write to people who had failed to fill in a questionnaire, even when they had received repeated written requests. The writers in my class didn’t like the standard letter that had been generated to cover such situations, and they wanted to come up with a new one.

So for a couple of hours we changed, rearranged, and added to the content. One person suggested that perhaps the recipient of the questionnaire hadn’t understood the instructions for filling it in. Another added that perhaps the recipient didn’t give as much importance to answering the questionnaire as the sender did. And someone else said that the recipient was being asked to go out of their way to answer the questionnaire, and that the letter we rewrote should reflect that.

Writers felt good and so would readers
Participants were thrilled with the rewritten letter. Compared with the original, it was almost unrecognisable. It was comprehensive and considerate. The writer, and the organisation behind the writer, came across as not only thoughtful, but human.

I found myself asking the question ‘On a scale of 1 – 10, where 1 is not generous and 10 is very generous, how would you rate this letter?’

Participants unanimously gave our new version a 9 or a 10. And I wondered if our teaching of plain English — in customer- service letters and in all sorts of other documents — could go one step further in thinking about the reader’s needs.

We could encourage our writers to be not just courteous to readers but to go one step further and be generous to their readers.

Demand to understand - Dr Doubletalk

2010-07-16T09:18:00.001+12:00

And the third of the Plain Campaign demand to understand video clips:

Demand to understand - the elusive lender

2010-07-15T09:06:00.001+12:00

Video clip two, as promised:

Demand to understand - the baffling banker

2010-07-14T14:06:00.008+12:00

Here's the first of three video clips from the US Plain Campaign: the Baffling Banker. I'll post the other two over the next few days. (BTW, the headline to this post should be read with a US accent.)

Check out our new website

2010-07-12T12:07:00.002+12:00

Do check out our new website. It's still a work in progress (as websites should be), but we're cautiously pleased with it.

www.write.co.nz

The chemist who wrote

2010-07-01T11:14:00.002+12:00

Hands up, who has a scientific brain? Do you think this means you’re not a writer? Do you think words are better left to the artists amongst us?

Coming from a family of scientists who write with clarity and lightness, I’ve been thinking lately about how a scientific mindset can be a valuable tool in writing plain English. Far from avoiding words, I believe that scientists can harness their strengths to produce clear, well-organised documents. Approaching a document logically can help you over the twin hurdles that face many writers; how to start, and what to say next.

When we look at a document at Write, we start by thinking about structure and purpose. Has the writer told the reader why they wrote the document and what they want the reader to do with it? Does the writer state the main messages clearly at the start? Do points follow each other in a logical order, with a strong, clear argument? If you can do these things, and then find direct, precise, shapely language to convey your thoughts, you’ll be well on the way to plain English. The basic disciplines of careful design and a logical approach are central to the task of writing — as they are to science.

But are we doing ourselves a disservice by dividing ourselves into scientists and arty types in the first place? In Other People’s Trades, Primo Levi — chemist and writer — discusses the false divide between science and literature. He argues that the two cultures have much to offer each other, that at their best they operate hand-in-hand, and always have done.

This is an unnatural schism, unnecessary, harmful, the result of distant taboos and the Counter-Reformation, when they do not actually go back to a petty interpretation of the Biblical prohibition against eating a certain fruit. It did not concern Empedocles, Dante, Leonardo, Galileo, Descartes, Goethe and Einstein, the anonymous builders of the Gothic cathedrals and Michelangelo; nor does it concern the good craftsmen of today, or the physicists hesitating on the brink of the unknowable.
Levi, P. Other People’s Trades. 2nd ed. London: Abacus, 1991: viii.

Perhaps our most powerful writing comes when we dismantle the barriers around our identities and disciplines, when we use fully all the writing muscles available to us. Just look at what can happen when the scientist steps beyond logic into creativity and intuition; when the poet brings focus and an eye for detail to flights of the imagination.