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All hail the newspeak, protecting us from wrongthink. Seriously, avoid the exact domain-specific terms (“jargon”), don’t use “rich” figurative language (“tackl

All hail the newspeak, protecting us from wrongthink. Seriously, avoid the exact domain-specific terms (“jargon”), don’t use “rich” figurative language (“tackle” is out)? The recommendation is really going for the lowest common linguistic denominator, like it’s inspired from Simple English Wikipedia. Weren’t we all supposed to elevate each other? Now it seems we aim for a common soft mushy muddy bottom. (“Elevate”, “aim”... off with me head!)

Metacelsus 4y ago
For a government website it's important that all the citizens can understand it, so it makes sense to use simpler vocabulary. Remember that ~50% of the population has IQ less than 100.
- MonkeyClub 4y ago
  It’s also the government’s job to educate its citizens (or in this case subjects). Has the UK government thrown in the towel wrt education, and now just goes for bare minimum? What’s next, stopping the teaching of grammar in schools? :)
  - detaro 4y ago
    You really don't understand the difference between "throwing in the towel wrt education" and "acknowledging that not everyone meets those standards" (for a variety of reasons)?
- m0rissette 4y ago
  I just woke up so don’t feel like fact checking this. Is the population really that mentally challenged? Can you provide a reference to your statistic? Changed “general population” to “population” See, it already had an effect on my writing.
  - stkdump 4y ago
    It's in the definition of the IQ (assuming a bell curve distribution)
  - ohbtvz 4y ago
    Modern IQ tests are normalized with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient
  - giardini 4y ago
    m0rissette says> "I just woke up so don’t feel like fact checking this. Is the population really that mentally challenged? Can you provide a reference to your statistic?[i.e. parent statement: 'Remember that ~50% of the population has IQ less than 100.']<" Thanks for the laugh!8-)) Now go have a cup of coffee.
acdha 4y ago
One thing it’s important to remember is that there’s a big difference between recreational prose and documents which are important for a wide variety of people to easily understand. This is especially true when there are potential legal implications such as when a government staffer is giving instructions to a contractor or someone is telling citizens how to access public services. No, “tackle” probably isn’t going to be a showstopper but it’s also usually an incorrect metaphor so there’s little lost by saying precisely what you mean.
_s 4y ago
Roughly 10% of the UK does not use English as their main language. Roughly 30% of English speakers in the UK are bilingual (or more). The aim of this is not to improve peoples english ability, it's to ensure that they can understand and access the relevant gov services they require. There are a significant amount of Gov services available from childhood to adult education to learn, or improve their English separately to this.

Metacelsus 4y ago

For a government website it's important that all the citizens can understand it, so it makes sense to use simpler vocabulary. Remember that ~50% of the population has IQ less than 100.

MonkeyClub 4y ago
It’s also the government’s job to educate its citizens (or in this case subjects). Has the UK government thrown in the towel wrt education, and now just goes for bare minimum? What’s next, stopping the teaching of grammar in schools? :)
- detaro 4y ago
  You really don't understand the difference between "throwing in the towel wrt education" and "acknowledging that not everyone meets those standards" (for a variety of reasons)?
m0rissette 4y ago
I just woke up so don’t feel like fact checking this. Is the population really that mentally challenged? Can you provide a reference to your statistic? Changed “general population” to “population” See, it already had an effect on my writing.
- stkdump 4y ago
  It's in the definition of the IQ (assuming a bell curve distribution)
- ohbtvz 4y ago
  Modern IQ tests are normalized with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient
- giardini 4y ago
  m0rissette says> "I just woke up so don’t feel like fact checking this. Is the population really that mentally challenged? Can you provide a reference to your statistic?[i.e. parent statement: 'Remember that ~50% of the population has IQ less than 100.']<" Thanks for the laugh!8-)) Now go have a cup of coffee.

acdha 4y ago

One thing it’s important to remember is that there’s a big difference between recreational prose and documents which are important for a wide variety of people to easily understand. This is especially true when there are potential legal implications such as when a government staffer is giving instructions to a contractor or someone is telling citizens how to access public services. No, “tackle” probably isn’t going to be a showstopper but it’s also usually an incorrect metaphor so there’s little lost by saying precisely what you mean.

_s 4y ago

Roughly 10% of the UK does not use English as their main language. Roughly 30% of English speakers in the UK are bilingual (or more). The aim of this is not to improve peoples english ability, it's to ensure that they can understand and access the relevant gov services they require. There are a significant amount of Gov services available from childhood to adult education to learn, or improve their English separately to this.