Past newsletters 2003

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Plain English update 31 October 2003

An independent report suggests the sheer complexity of government forms is undermining the benefits of plain English.

'Difficult forms', published by the National Audit Office, says 'forms used by departments and agencies tend to be colourful, use large fonts for print and employ plain English, but they also often have complex internal structures, where users become unsure what bits to fill in. Forms often mix up questions answered by large groups of people with other questions relevant only for small groups of citizens.'

Our spokesman John Lister told the Financial Times that the report was consistent with the accounts we hear from our supporters. 'The real underlying problem is still the amount of information being asked for. People question if it's all really necessary.'

According to the report, an average form used by the government asks for between 40 and 60 pieces of information, but some ask for more than 200. Forms concerning welfare and benefit payments tend to be the longest - despite the fact that people claiming such benefits are more likely to struggle with deciphering complicated information.'

Around two-thirds of the 519 forms surveyed explain any jargon or unfamiliar terms. But the report suggests the major problem with forms is now poor organisation rather than incomprehensible language.

'Until recently some agencies seem to have approached the design of forms in a formal and legalistic way, assuming an ideal citizen who conscientiously reads all the information given with a form and can cope with very complex information. Our case studies show that questions on forms are often not independently intelligible, often include long preambles and signature declarations, and are accompanied by very lengthy and complex guidance notes. Guidance leaflets make very limited use of pictures or icons and rarely provide any 'quick start' advice to help citizens complete their task easily.'

Edward Leigh, chairman of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, said 'Too many government forms are structured like a baffling labyrinth and seem longer than the average novel. It is no laughing matter. This excessive bureaucracy not only wastes the taxpayer's time, but our money as well.'

According to the report, five specific changes could significantly reduce the problems.

• Forms should be much shorter.
• Information technology should be better used to reduce the amount of questioning needed.
• Guidance leaflets that accompany forms need to be shorter and clearer.
• Form producers need to better consider the point of view of the person filling in the form.
• Writers should realise that it is not always appropriate to use the same form for everybody - different groups have different needs.

Another week, another new dictionary. This time it's 'The Dictionary of Playground Slang'.

The book has more than a thousand definitions of terms apparently used by schoolchildren, including:

• exypesh (a contraction of extra special);
• goffers (sweets);
• ming-ray (to throw the contents of an unattended bag across the playground);
• sprag (a child who tells tales); and
• zinc (untrendy)

As usual, we'd caution against using any of these terms in an attempt to make documents seem relevant for children - the fact that the phrases have appeared in the Daily Mail should guarantee they have lost any 'street cred' they may have had!

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Plain English update 24 October 2003

One of our readers sent us a copy of an office memo they received. It's a good example of how style and content can have a combined effect. In this case, the message itself is not particularly unreasonable (though arguably petty). And the style isn't particularly unclear (though certainly a little pompous). But the message and style together left readers 'both amused and exasperated'.

'Can I remind all users of stationery and all demanders of the same that demands for stationery should be kept to a minimum and stationery should not be demanded more than once a week except in an emergency. Can I also remind everyone that there is a core list of items available and these are the items that should be demanded. Individuals should not be demanding items not on the list when a suitable item is already listed. Furthermore, the requirement for demanding stationery should be by need not nicety. All demands will be vetted and where necessary non core items removed or substituted.'

A legal case that finished this week had an interesting twist: the firm involved claimed their language was ambiguous, but the court argued it was still clear.

The case was about Wrigley's attempts to register 'Doublemint' as a trademark for their chewing gum.

First the European Union's Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market turned down the trademark application because of a rule that descriptive phrases cannot be registered.

Then Wrigley appealed to the EU's Court of First Justice, saying 'Doublemint' was ambiguous as it could mean the product had twice the usual amount of mint, or that it involved two varieties of mint. The court agreed that this dual meaning meant that logically the phrase could not be an effective description.

However, the Office for Harmonisation took the case to the European Court of Justice, which decided the term was still a description. The Court's Advocate-General said that 'Doublemint' implied 'a mint flavour somehow doubled'. According to the ruling, the fact that the method of doubling was uncertain 'in no way detracts from the fact that the term designates a characteristic of doubled mintiness.'

On the subject of ambiguity, we've spotted some interesting job titles in recent weeks. Various organisations have advertised for a 'domestic violence co‑ordinator', a 'teenage pregnancy co‑ordinator' and a 'hate crime co‑ordinator'.

We're fairly sure nobody would genuinely misunderstand the roles, but if they did, we'd love to see the interview!

One of our readers sent us a copy of an office memo they received. It's a good example of how style and content can have a combined effect. In this case, the message itself is not particularly unreasonable (though arguably petty). And the style isn't particularly unclear (though certainly a little pompous). But the message and style together left readers 'both amused and exasperated'.

'Dear All

Can I remind all users of stationery and all demanders of the same that demands for stationery should be kept to a minimum and stationery should not be demanded more than once a week except in an emergency. Can I also remind everyone that there is a core list of items available and these are the items that should be demanded. Individuals should not be demanding items not on the list when a suitable item is already listed. Furthermore, the requirement for demanding stationery should be by need not nicety.

All demands will be vetted and where necessary non core items removed or substituted.'

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Plain English update 10 October 2003

Our A-Z guide to legal terms has inspired a similar publication in Ireland. The country's National Adult Literacy Agency has produced a 'Plain English Guide to Legal Terms' which covers 1400 words and phrases.

NALA staff used our A-Z as a starting point, then consulted the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and barrister Kieron Wood to tailor the content to the Irish legal system. Patrick O'Connor, a former President of the Law Society of Ireland, checked the final product for legal accuracy.

The launch of the guide marked National Literacy Awareness Week, which also involved a conference on 'Literacy and the Legal & Justice System'. Plain English Campaign's John Wild spoke as part of the conference.

A set of Crystal-Marked pensions materials has won an industry award. The Safeway scheme won the award for defined benefit communications in the ceremony, run by industry magazine Professional Pensions.

Consultants Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow produced the scheme materials, including leaflets, benefit statements and booklets. They worked with us to make sure the documents reached Crystal Mark standard.

According to Jon Cruddas MP, speaking at this week's Labour conference, his party has 'developed an approach to the world that is chronocentric.'

We think that he means 'biased towards the present day rather than any other time'. Whether that's a compliment or a criticism presumably depends on your interpretation and your politics!

We'll no doubt have some linguistic gems from the other party conferences in the next couple of weeks, but for the sake of balance we shall present the following news without comment.

Simon Hoggart of the Guardian has a new book coming out on Monday, titled 'Punchlines: A Crash Course in English with John Prescott'.

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Plain English update 3 October 2003

A few weeks ago we mentioned the e-mail about jumbled-up lettering that was floating around the internet. A researcher at a Cambridge organisation who studies the way the brain works in speech and language has produced an interesting page on the subject, pointing out several flaws in the 'trick'.

You can find it at:

http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~matt.davis/Cmabrigde/

(Yes, that's 'Cmabrigde' rather than Cambridge.)

The euphemism of the week came in several newspaper reports about Conservative MP John Maples this week. Rumours have been flying that Mr Maples is leading attempts to call for a no-confidence motion in party leader Iain Duncan Smith. In response, the party's chief whip David Maclean (who is responsible for party discipline), will reportedly be summoning Mr Maples for a 'career development interview'.

Speaking of the party conferences, we've found an interesting similarity between the leaders' speeches. As you may know, we don't recommend using readability formulas as a definitive assessment of clarity. However, the Flesch test (which takes into account average sentence length and syllables per word) is useful for a very 'rough and ready' assessment of simplicity, if not clarity.

Applying the test shows Labour leader Tony Blair's speech (with a 'readability score' of 70.5) edging a narrow lead over Conservative Iain Duncan Smith (69.5), and Charles Kennedy of the Liberal Democrats (65.5) in third place. Mr Kennedy used slightly shorter sentences than his two opponents, but longer words. Interestingly all three men used shorter average sentence lengths than the 15 to 25 words we recommend for public information.

We often cover stories about new editions of dictionaries and the 'controversy' over new entries. A report by Susie Dent (language consultant for Channel 4's 'Countdown') this week looks at this issue. She found that, based on the last century of Oxford English Dictionary editions, an average of 900 new words a year become established in common use. However, just 1% of these are completely new words (usually brand names or technical terms for inventions).

Among the new words:

• more than half are simply two previous words joined together without any changes (such as 'mallrat', a teenager who spends all their spare time wandering around shopping centres);
• around 15% are new versions of existing terms (such as 'edgy' to mean 'cutting edge');
• around 5% are foreign terms that become part of English (such as a 'bhuna' curry);
• around 5% combine parts of existing words (such as 'brandalism' for a building defaced by advertising); and
• a small number are nouns that have become verbs (such as 'blade' to mean 'roller-blading').

We may have a contender for the shortest potentially ambiguous phrase of the year.

While many will feel the cause is worthy, Handicap International's slogan for a new campaign is, while only three words long, perhaps unfortunately worded.

It simply says 'Stamp out landmines'.

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