How to Pass the Grandma Test
Does your content or message pass the Grandma test?
Posts Tagged: plain language
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.
Plain Language Doesn’t Have to Be Plain
I had a really great conversation with one of my coworkers the other day about the concept of “plain language” which really got me thinking about writing across all parts of government–local, state, federal… Here in the federal government, we talk about plain language–which is the idea that language should be easy to understand forRead… Read more »
Gov Gobbledygook And How To Change It
There’s a million witty words for bureaucratic language…. gobbledygook, gibberish, mumbo-jumbo, jargon, double-talk, bureaucratese, technobabble! There are probably so many words for it because it’s such a widespread, and exasperating, problem. Including in the government. It’s fun to use crazy words, but it’s certainly not a best practice in terms of government efficiency. Annetta Cheek,Read… Read more »
Tell Me Straight: Plain Language in Governance
Reading wordy language is a real pain. As a graduate student of a social sciences discipline (I recently got a Masters’ in gender studies), I saw some of the most ridiculous examples of convoluted and elaborate language out there – social theory seems to spontaneously inspire this habit. It was annoying as a student, asRead… Read more »
A Day in the Life of an Accessibility SME
I met a fellow govie recently, and when I told him that I work in digital media accessibility, he said, “OMG, I could not review code all day, every day!” Well…neither could I, and although that’s what most people think we accessibility peeps do, that’s not the case. I may or may not look atRead… Read more »