Plain Language in Progress Congress Houston February 2000

Next

Update on Plain Language Initiatives in the U.S. Government

Presentation by Joanne Locke
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Reported by Paula Pomerenke
Professor of Business Communications
Illinois State University, Normal, IL
Email: pjpomer@ilstu.edu

Joanne Locke, a policy analyst for the Food and Drug Administration, presented an update on Plain Language initiatives in the U.S. Government. The U. S. is "the new kid on the block" with President Clinton's Executive Memo for "user friendly writing" in government documents coming only in 1998. Canada and other countries are ahead of us in Plain Language activity.

The National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) had pushed for the memo and fostered the Plain Language Action Network (PLAN) after the memo was signed. The intent of the Memo included the following guidelines for revising in Plain English:

By October 1, 1998, all government documents that go to the public
By January 1999 all regulations in the Federal Register
By 2002 all government documents

The pendulum swings from agencies that are very involved to those that don't know what's going on yet. The following agencies are exhibiting the most activity:

The Food and Drug Administration: Workshops for everyone working on regulations; an award for good examples of well-written documents; including Plain English on the intranet; and rewriting labels for over-the-counter drugs. The slogan, "FDA Plain Language: It's the Write Idea," was the result of a contest.
Medicare: Working on clearer documents for senior citizens
Environmental Protection Agency: Designing interactive training tutorial to be in place by April
Student Financial Aid: Revising forms
Internal Revenue Service: Working on drastically clearer documents
Veteran's Bureau: Formed focus groups for revising letters to clients; working to train 9,000 employees
Social Security: Trained its writers

The NPR will close its doors at the end of 2000 no matter who becomes president. Although it is hard to visualize anyone not accepting these initiatives, only time will tell. PLAN needs people to sponsor change and keep the activity going. With no financial resources the group has accomplished a great deal so far and is trying to determine what these initiatives save each agency that has adopted them.