This piece originally appeared at State Capacitance.
Jargon and “official-ese” plague governments everywhere. In regulations, reports, and websites, government writing too often avoids the clear and the straightforward. It has always been thus. Consider the following quote from the 1890s, both truly painful and quite representative:
Sir: In obedience to your request of the 15th instant for my opinion as to the merit and practicability of the new system of transacting the official business assigned to the office of the Auditor for the Treasury Department, and under my charge, as may have been evidenced to me during the period in which it has been in operation, I beg to submit the following:
In the words of Yes, Minister, “I couldn’t have put it less clearly myself.” Government writing is less stilted today, not least because of the Plain Language movement – an effort to simplify government writing so that ordinary people can make sense of it.
The federal government began adopting these principles with an executive order during the Clinton administration, eventually leading to the Plain Language Act of 2010. Today, the major initiative is improving government websites; the US Digital Service, among others, offers resources such as training and style guides.
Bad government writing is an age-old problem, and attempts to improve it are only a bit younger. In 1955, the General Services Administration published a writing guide called “Plain Letters”, thereby kicking off an effort to improve writing across the government.
The guide, as the name implies, explained what constitutes a good letter. But more than that, it aimed to train good letter writers. The focus was partially on the final document, but even more so on investing in the writer himself.
