Over the past few years, I’ve been writing a book about ethics and plain language. I was invited to reflect here on what I’ve learned, and I’m happy to share six of the most important lessons that stand out for me.
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Rolling with Report Cards
The Federal Report Card process for 2015 is underway! Agencies are preparing their submissions for the Center’s review. This relatively new service by the Center (since 2012) continues to evolve, and this year we are making a couple of changes to the process.
First, we are reviewing two types of documents, one selected by the Center and the other selected by the agency:
The Awards are coming! The Awards are coming!
Here’s an opportunity to spend a wonderful evening with other plain language advocates and practitioners. Each year, the Center for Plain Language gives the ClearMark Award to print and online information that is easy for the public to understand and use.
Building a plain language culture in the US Government
I’ve spent the last few months working on the 2014 Federal Plain Language Report Card. The Report Card evaluates whether U.S. Federal Departments comply with the Plain Writing Act of 2010. This year we also analyzed writing samples against best practices for both writing and information design.
Queen for a few days
My group won the ClearMark Grand Prize in 2013. We were thrilled! My colleague and I graciously accepted the award and headed for champagne at the bar next door. I lugged the trophy home to New York and proudly displayed it for everyone to see. Our new medical director seemed impressed—nothing like getting a few brownie points with the new boss.
I won employee of the month for leading health literacy/plain language efforts at the March of Dimes. This got me flowers, my name on a plaque, a free lunch and an up-close employee-of-the-month parking space. I was the queen of plain language. I had the trophy and the parking space.
The time has come…
For me to depart from the Center’s Board. It’s been a terrific 10 years, but I need a rest and the Center needs a change of leadership.
We’ve gotten a lot done since we hosted our first big conference, the Plain International conference in Washington in 2005. We had over 300 people from 17 countries participate. The event set the trend for the bigger and better Clarity and Plain International Conferences we now enjoy…