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So the GDPR forces companies to do what the Plain English Campaign has been trying to do for a long time now. That's nice.

Does the US have "MP"s? Other than Military Police?

Did you fail to notice that this is the UK?

For consumer contracts, UK law requires that they be 'plain and intelligible language'. But these are not consumer contracts.

and nothing that any of us should worry about, then why is there not a way in which the PC's user can view all of the data that is sent to Microsoft? This should include a plain English explanation of everything. After all: why should a PC's owner not see what it sends ?

Disclaimer: I do not have any MS product

What we look for

Things we look for include:

• a good average sentence length (about 15 to 20 words)
• plenty of 'active' verbs (instead of 'passive' ones)
• everyday English
• words like 'we' and 'you' instead of 'the insured', 'the applicant', 'the society' and so on
• conciseness
• clear, helpful headings with consistent and suitable ways of making them stand out from the text
• a good typesize and clear typeface
• plenty of answer space and a logical flow (on forms).

It's vague, but it's better than nothing. Then again, we also have the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations which would make this kind of "No saying bad things!" clause utterly ununforceable :)

(particularly when my agency GIVES THEM GAS MONEY)

Geez, you need to act like a competent bureaucracy and add enough paperwork and dead-ends that the "worthless" (i.e. losers / deadbeats) are too lazy to finish a requisition for gas money, let alone be approved and actual receive such moneies. And more obscure usage of language, and vocabulary. plain-English is a government anti-Pattern.

(And I do know we need social / human services agencies for those who are trying to escape / improve. The difficult part is finding the balance to get to the money & support to those who need it.)

There is an organisation in the UK called the Crystal Mark that provides plain easy to understand English on places where it matters, like contracts, bills, Govt documents etc. http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/ No idea if there is something similar in the US but I think it's a cracking good idea and it's used as a selling point by services and companies in the UK.

I was in Madrid for the IWP and while we were out in an international group looking for somewhere nice to eat I asked our native resident "if there were any good English restaurants in town?". Much to the guffawing of the others and myself.

Though that did get me thinking about what would that even be serving if such a thing existed.

As Naomi Campbell said "I love England, especially the food. There's nothing I like more than a lovely bowl of pasta."

Like this?

Under the situation and circumstances that our knowledge and quest for full "transparency" of every little freaking detail (that are typically irrelevant to us, but not to those attempting to circumvent the procedure) be made public. When the media and people go too far into things that really aren't their concern undermine the success of any program. It has gotten to the point they're having to say "we can't talk about this at all" because in the past it gets leaked then investigated in a committee. At that point someone seeking political gains wants an irrelevant full disclosure or things that were found legal during the investigation. Basically just wasting time in pointless debates over legal things instead of trying to tackle actual problems. That is more of an issue internal to the Congress where they don't trust the competence of their own collegues that they voted to assign to a specific committee.

Well, you can blame power hungry or corrupt police, unethical lawyers, activist judges that let those lawyers get away with their insane interpretations, and finally the legislators that can't speak in freaking http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/ If they'd all do their jobs better, this wouldn't be an issue.

And my interpretation from what little we were given is they are. At least we were in agreement TFA wasn't 100% clear. I saw it as an attempt to stop talking about legal incidents, and the 2nd quote said it would stop talking about illegal incidents (obviously a horrible thing).

That's pretty sad when legal experts can't even agree on what they say.

Not if the author wanted them to be difficult to understand.

If you come across forms / agreements that are difficult to understand, consider asking for one in plain english.

Companies seem to be going a bit over board with thier EULA's and generally making things hard on the customer. If EULA's were written in plain english and kept short and to the point, without "Lawyer Speak", it could benefit both the company and the User. As it is now, most EULA's only set up the customer to take a shafting if they bring up an issue with a company.

'Plain English' is language that the intended audience can understand and act upon from a single reading.

That would get even closer to your proposal, because it would be a lot easier to recite short, properly phrased sentences.

If you're interested in the book's subject, you might find the following links usefull:

Technical writing tips: http://www.docsymmetry.com/index.html

Plain English Campaign: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/index.html

Get it write: http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/tips.htm

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of plain English and I love the idea behind the "Plain English Campaign," but their guides are poor for a website that is advocating Plain English.

Consider these lines from their guide "How to Write Plain English."

Most experts would agree that clear writing should have an average sentence length of 15 to 20 words.

Should read:

Make your sentences about 15 to 20 words long.

And...

However, at first you may still find yourself writing the odd long sentence, especially when trying to explain a complicated point. But most long sentences can be broken up in some way.

Should read...

If you find yourself writing a long sentence to explain a complicated point, try breaking your sentence up.

Or...

If your sentence is too long, try breaking it up.

Or...

If your sentence is too long, break it up.

And...

To explain the difference between active and passive verbs, we need to look briefly at how a sentence fits together. Almost every sentence has three important parts. There are three main parts to almost every sentence:

Should be:

Well, whatever it is, it shouldn't say the same sentence twice at the end.

These are just a few examples and I'm sure one could advocate the use of the original in some situations. But read the entire article and you will see useful information and perhaps "better-than-average use of plain English" but it won't be as great as it must be for a site of this kind.

My test for well written in English is that my mind doesn't wander. I knew this wasn't great English because I sometimes found it hard to concentrate on the material. This is especially bad when I'm interested in it. IMHO, the "Elements of Style" is a better introduction to good writing.

Before you jump all over me for any badly constructed sentences in this post, remember that the standard for a "teaching plain english" article has to be much higher than a SlashDot post. ;)

Personally I think the problem is cultural and affects people who are intelligent and know it, but not intelligent enough that they feel they don't have to prove themselves. The more obscure your references are and the more complicated your train of thought, the smarter you must be, right?

Luckly there are folks like the Plain English Campaign, " fighting for public information to be written in plain English." If you ever have to write a public document, I recommend reading through their Examples and Free Tutorials sections.

Don't take this personally, but I think you need some help in writing clearer, more concise sentences.

"But Baker did something most others before her had not - she went and got a lawyer."

I mean this is the US right??!? And NO-ONE had gotten a lawyer before...? I thought you guys sued if someone looked at you funny. Or made posts like this... Ooops..

Seriously though, it's a great point but EULA's aren't ever in plain english. I accept that the legalese is to an extent needed due to interpretation worries and the like but you could get the folks at he Plain English Campaign http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/ to turn these damn things into something that we might actually read and understand. EULA's might not be something most of us want/need to 'get by' on a daily basis but it'd certainly increase the chances.

You misunderstand the purpose of legalese. Like any jargon a large part of its purpose is to create an artificial barrier to entry for the uninitiated. A EULA written in plain english can be both precise and clear.

gobbledigoop

It is usually spelled like this:
gobbledygook

"1. Don't know what you don't know.

It is essential not to profess to know, or seem to know, or accept that someone else knows, that which is unknown. Almost without exception, the things that end up coming back to haunt you..."

Did anyone else think of Rumsfeld's infamous mindfart (for which he won a Foot in Mouth award) --

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

Eerie.

I feel the Plain English Campaign offers a useful guide "We define plain English as something that the intended audience can read, understand and act upon the first time they read it". So, perhaps you are right for the majority of people. But I had to pause a while and think about what michael meant.

I agree with you that some nouns become accepted as verbs.

He appears to have said: "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

Or was it about something else?

At any rate, this got him this years Foot in Mouth award.

And yes, it's just so slightly off-topic. But hell, I couln't resist.

BTW, his runner-up was Governator, who thinks that "gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman".

That's why I never got an english degree ;)

A link for Lawyers and civil servants

Quite right. If the average citizens of a country can't understand a law, it's a bad law.

I think the entire legal code should be under fifty pages, should be written by the guys from Plain English, and should be taught to school-children. In fact, I think the complexity of laws should be judged by the percentage of people who understand the law. If you can't get 95% of people to understand a law (and remember them) you can't in good faith prosecute them for not obeying it.

There's a lot of redundant laws that could be removed and a lot of overly complex laws that could be written a lot better.

Then, if someone has graduated high-school you *know* they understand the law, because it's a mandatory course. And if they don't grad, perhaps they shouldn't be treated as adults until they do. (If you end up with more than a few like this, you know the course is too tough.)

I've often proposed that the entire legal code an individual be subjected to be readable and roughly memorizable by "the average non-college educated person".

I've often proposed that the entire legal code an individual be subjected to be readable and roughly memorizable by "the average non-college educated person".

I've often proposed that the entire legal code an individual be subjected to be readable and roughly memorizable by "the average non-college educated person".

Please read this:

Then this:

Then petition your government to pass plain English laws too. It's not just corporate lobbying that gets results. Public interest lobbying sometimes does too.

Please read this:

Then this:

Then petition your government to pass plain English laws too. It's not just corporate lobbying that gets results. Public interest lobbying sometimes does too.