GSA Makes it Easier for You to Get on Schedule 70
When partners suggested we come up with a way to describe the process of getting on Schedule using plain language, GSA’s 18F and IT Schedule 70 teamed up and took on that challenge.
Posts Tagged: plain language
What Government Fiction Can Teach Us About Plain Language – From the Big Short to the West Wing
You may not realize it, but your favorite fiction or shows can also teach us a lot about effective government communications, and more specifically about plain language.
We Say It’s Lingo, They Say It’s Jargon: Using Plain Language to Connect with Our Customers
Simplifying language while preserving the technical underpinnings of a message can be a challenge — especially when you get pushback from your more technically-minded colleagues. Here are some things to emphasize to make sure plain language stays alive and well at your agency.
A Quick Tour of PlainLanguage.Gov
In this post, I hope to acclimate you to a few of the resources that are housed at PlainLanguage.gov so that you will learn to integrate the guidance into your own work as well as to navigate the site on your own.
How to Pass the Grandma Test
Does your content or message pass the Grandma test?
Customers: Where Usability and Plain Language Intersect
The only way to test if content is usable or plain is to test it. It’s not the writer or editor–or the program manager–who determines whether content is plain or usable; it’s the user.
The Best and Worst at Plain Language in Government
Which federal agencies should you look to as models of plain language? Which ones are getting it wrong and why?
The General’s Red Pen: My Plain Language Beginnings
You know how some people like crossword or jigsaw puzzles? Editing is the same thing.
Just Say It: 3 Easy Tips for Communicating In Plain Language
Ever go back and forth with someone via email three or four times, only to be frustrated that they don’t understand you? So you call them and after listening to just a few sentences they say, “Why didn’t you tell me that! NOW I get it.” Write the way you would talk to the person… Read more »
Simple Writing isn’t Simple. Let’s Test Some Tools That Can Help
The words we use in science, engineering or any other technical field aren’t familiar to the general public. So we use them — translate them, as it were — and in the process arguably lose the technical accuracy of the language we use.