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Award nominations

Plain English Campaign is accepting nominations for their 2012 Golden Bull awards, and two outstanding EU examples of gobbledygook have been received today. The first is from an EU office, 'The Directorate General Information Society and Media (DG INFSO)' and the second from the Spanish central bank, 'The Bank of Spain'.

The first example from the EU website tells us that ordinary 'thinking' and 'doing' is simply not enough in a digital future. We think that 'prepare for reflections' and 'anticipatory thinking' means plain old 'thinking ahead'! There probably isn't much space left on the 'time horizon' for that though, with all the 'envisaging of scenarios', 'generating of policy options ' and 'inspiring of strategic choices'.

"The project envisages scenarios on a time horizon 2040-50 and generates ideas and policy options with a view to inspire future strategic choices of DG INFSO and the Commission."

Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 April 2012 08:31 Read more...

Jargon – you can stick it on National Plain English Day

National Plain English Day fell on Friday 9 December 2011 and coincided with the Plain English Campaign’s annual Golden Bull awards.

National Plain English Day started with the launch of the campaign when the supporters travelled to Parliament and set to shredding jargon-filled documents on Parliament Green. The police then intervened and read out the legalese-filled Metropolitan Police Act, prompting Chrissie Maher, founder of Plain English Campaign to ask,

“Does all that mean we have to go?”

Since then the campaign has been fighting against the use of jargon and gobbledygook in public information from both private and public service organisations. The awards ceremony recognises public nominations gathered over the year for both well and poorly written information.

BBC cannot always be trusted to use plain English

While the BBC is still recognised by many as a worldwide standard in communication, there are parts of the organisation receiving criticism from programme listeners.

Last Updated on Monday, 19 December 2011 10:24 Read more...

Mum's the word

Making family decisions, or giving parental advice, can be difficult when you can't find the right words. But it is possibly more difficult for parents to understand and interpret the volumes of information they receive daily from government and businesses.

Last Updated on Monday, 28 November 2011 14:07 Read more...

Plain English and legal advice are essential bedfellows

Lady Justice Hallett has been nominated for our Osborne Memorial award for speaking up in court about the need for plain English. She joins the likes of Baroness Thatcher for her support during the Rayner Review of government documents and Harriet Harman MP for her work on the plain English explanations of the Equalities Bill.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 November 2011 10:39 Read more...

Compulsory purchase order is a 'must buy' in plain English

The Scottish Government has launched new guidance on compulsory purchase orders for Local Authorities and an easy read guide for members of the public.

This is the first time in over 30 years the guidance for Local Authorities has been updated.

Last Updated on Monday, 23 January 2012 15:08 Read more...

Protect your livelihood with plain language

As people in major towns of the UK sweep their lives back into order, it has been suggested that the national riots were triggered after a 29-year-old man, Mark Duggan, was shot in London by police officers. But the absence of plain English in a major public crisis has again made matters worse with details of the shooting being poorly communicated by the police force, and the difficulties experienced by police officers in deciphering the street language of young rioters.

Earlier this year, the 7/7 evidence hearings were heavily criticised by the attending judge, Lady Justice Hallet, for being seriously short of ‘plain English’.

Last Updated on Monday, 23 January 2012 15:08 Read more...

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