Plain Language Writing

A presentation for Master of User Experience Design students at Victoria University

The proliferation of confused, jargon-laden language in business, government and design reports is such an issue that numerous organisations and consultancies have been formed to promote the use of plain language around the world. Some examples of these are Plain Language in the United States, Plain English in the UK, Drop the Jargon in Australia and Write here in New Zealand.

What typifies Plain Language?

The single most important feature of plain language (or in this case, plain English) is that it should be understood first time round.

“Plain English is clear, straightforward expression, using only as many words as are necessary.

It is language that avoids obscurity, inflated vocabulary and convoluted sentence construction.

It is not baby talk, nor is it a simplified version of the English language.

Writers of plain English let their audience concentrate on the message instead of being distracted by complicated language.

They make sure that their audience understands the message easily.”

Professor Robert Eagleson

Jargon

Jargon comprises terms and acronyms which can simplify and enhance communication but should be intended for a particular audience.

When you find yourself using jargon, you need to ask yourself:
Can everybody in the room understand?

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If there is just one person in the room who doesn’t understand, they will be confused and left behind in the exchange. Ironically this can also create a viscous cycle where that user doesn’t understand a piece of jargon, researches the term, then adds it to their vocabulary and begins using it themselves so as to appear knowledgeable and up-to-date. This is a waste of time and effort which could be used more productively.

Jargon

The Good

Precision
Efficiency
Expediency (Acronyms)
Inclusion / Affiliation

Why use jargon?

Apart from the obvious advantages, jargon is often used, or misused to:

• Make yourself sound more important.

• Overstate your work input.

• Exclude others.

• Demonstrate your knowledge.

Accessibility

Jargon can exclude.

News sites, government documents and official forms often contain jargon.

The Easy Read method uses plain English and images to make documents more easy to understand.

Typically, Easy Read uses sentences that should be no more than ten to 15 words, and each sentence should have just one idea and one verb.

Active sentences are used instead of passive sentences.

Easy Read is closely edited, to express ideas in a small number of simple words.

Any difficult word or idea is explained in a separate sentence.

An Easy Read example:

“Thank you for your letter asking for permission to put up posters in the library. Before we can give you an answer we will need to see a copy of the posters to make sure they won’t offend anyone.”

“Thank you for your letter about your poster. We need to see the poster before we put it up. This is because it must not offend anyone. Offend means upset people.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Read

Really? Are things that bad?

Here’s an example of part of the contents of an Immigration New Zealand document obtained by Radio New Zealand.

“The data is currently being used to quantify and prioritise harm that has occurred in order to inform prioritisation of compliance activities.

“The ambition is to extend the harm model into a predictive model that can be used to predict the likelihood of long-term harm to NZ Inc based on demographics and individual harm.”

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/361199/immigration-dumps-controversial-deportation-analytical-tool

Plain Language & UX

How we communicate is UX too.

“The best UX designers I know can not only design interfaces that are simple to understand and use, but can also communicate in a simple and human way. They are thoughtful enough to simplify what they are saying or writing, simply because they care about the people receiving the message.

At some point in your career, creating great experiences to other people becomes more than a habit; it becomes a mission. And it ends up spreading to every single aspect of your life.”

Fabricio Teixeira

https://uxdesign.cc/the-user-experience-of-choosing-the-simplest-possible-words-90628a3c4a44

Some UX Terminology

Excercise

How might we express the following in plain language?

“To enable best practice, a skilled UX designer needs to take a forward-facing approach and keep in mind not only their internal stakeholders, but also those users external to the organisation in which their product and designs eminate.

By enabling a design-cycle that begins with on-target research, developing through to ideation and iteration via a process of brain-storming, collaborative brain dumps and mind mapping, a strong UX professional will ensure polished UI assets and user flows create the best and most finely honed journey for all users.”