Victorian Government’s new plain language policy
Victoria recently joined a growing list of jurisdictions around the world, including the USA, Canada, Sweden and New Zealand, when it enacted a policy mandating the use of plain language in all internal and external communication.
The purpose of the Victorian Government’s accessible communications policy is to provide all Victorians with equal access to government information by setting out ‘the rules for communicating in a clear and direct way that is easy to understand’.
Plain language is democratic
While some might quake at the thought of a government setting rules for how people communicate, mandating the use of plain language actually makes our society more democratic. As I have written previously, to fully participate in society, you must have access to the information necessary to do so.
Plain language is also more efficient, as it only needs to be read once to be understood. This saves time and money by leading to fewer errors. This can have important real-world consequences, such as when a person is completing a form to apply for financial or medical assistance.
AI unlikely to be much help
Plain language writing is not difficult, but it does take time and a certain level of skill. It requires choosing each word carefully and thinking about how it fits in the overall context of what you are trying to say.
The large language models employed by AI tools can suggest changes to replace more complex words and phrases with simpler, more common ones, but because they can’t fully understand context (ultimately they are mathematical models), this can lead to subtle but critical changes to the meaning.
Resources for plain language writing
There are many excellent resources to help with plain language writing, including the Australian Government Style Manual, the International Plain Language Standard and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
The Digital.gov website from the US Government says something is written in plain language if the audience can:
find what they need
understand what they find the first time they read or hear it
use what they find to meet their needs.
Digital.gov provides a series of useful guides on how to write, design and test plain language content.
You can also get a professional to help, such as the writers at Red Pony.
