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/
Please note that the Plain Writing Association has just completed its history of U.S. plain language legislation culminating in the Plain Writing Act (accessible to the public on our website at www.plain-writing-association.org). We also have a side-by-side comparison of the original versions of the bills, showing how they were altered (indeed, changes made to the bills increased the OMB's estimate of what the Act would cost taxpayers from 2 million dollars to 5 million dollars). Our research also includes discussion pertaining to the use of plain English software by government.
ReplyDeleteIrwin Berent, President
Plain Writing Association