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The US government has the Plain Language movement which is rewriting policy and legal documents in clear, plain language. The plainlanguage.gov site is an exce

The US government has the Plain Language movement which is rewriting policy and legal documents in clear, plain language. The plainlanguage.gov site is an excellent all-around writing resource. I direct junior developers here when they are trying too hard to sound fancy when communicating technical concepts in documentation and design documents. Here are some great examples: https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/ambiguity/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/ambi... https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/monthly-due-date/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/mont... https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/use-less-water/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/use-...

mdaniel 2y ago
> The Plain Writing Act of 2010 was signed on October 13, 2010. The law requires that federal agencies use clear government communication that the public can understand and use. well, no shit! that's amazing Thanks so much for bringing that to my attention, I'll try to see how I can incorporate those into my own process
kookamamie 2y ago
[X] Good.
aurareturn 2y ago
This is a great resource for UX design as well.
archermarks 2y ago
Wow TIL. Those before and afters are awesome and I have definitely seen this showing up in government documents. Thanks for sharing.
falcor84 2y ago
That's a great initiative, but even with these, I feel there's further opportunity to make these clearer. As a particular example, is there any reason to keep the vague "second month" in the second example [2], rather than "subsequent month" or "next month"? [2] https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/monthly-due-date/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/mont...
- im3w1l 2y ago
  Yeah it's not that clear to me. My interpretation would be that if I'm reporting (whatever that means) April, then May would be the first month following, and hence June would be the second month following. Hence the last day I could submit would be June 15th (paper) or June 25th (electronic).
  - falcor84 2y ago
    Oh, wow, I think you're absolutely right and I entirely misread that (supposedly "plain") explanation. Having an example, like the one you gave, in the text would be really useful!
- iterateoften 2y ago
  Lots of ambiguity with “next”. It’s always so hard to describe “next Wednesday” if it’s Monday or “next week” if it’s Saturday. My friends from non English countries get very confused that somehow “next Wednesday” when it’s Monday might not mean two days from now but 8 days from now. And how two days in that instance would be referred as “this Wednesday” or “this coming Wednesday” Which is different way of talking. If you were sitting by the road counting cars and you are at car “n”, Saying “the next car” would refer to car n+1. If your counting wednesdays you experienced “next Wednesday” technically refers to n+2 I stopped saying “this <day>” or “next <day>” and now just say “Wednesday the 25th” for instance.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - pxc 2y ago
    > It’s always so hard to describe “next Wednesday” if it’s Monday 'Next Wednesday' is always the Wednesday of the calendar week following the current calendar week; doesn't matter what day of the week it currently is. 'This Wednesday' is always the Wednesday of current week on the calendar— even if that day is in the past. Is it quirky that this expression doesn't instead mean 'the next Wednesday that will occur'? Yes, definitely. But I don't see how it's difficult to describe what it actually does mean. > I stopped saying “this <day>” or “next <day>” and now just say “Wednesday the 25th” for instance. I love this. Indexicals in general can be tricky, and I love expressions that rely less or very little at all on context. Sometimes when a friend is telling a complicated story I'll ask them to repeat something tbey just said but with no use of pronouns, for instance, and it always makes interpretation much easier. As much as I think the actual idioms are perfectly describable, they are somewhat prominently misused. One of my pet peeves is how YouTube's search filters uses its time restriction phrases incorrectly: it says 'today' to mean 'within the past 24 hours', 'this week' to mean 'within the past week', 'this year' to mean 'within the past year', etc. It's Tuesday, and when I search for videos with an upload date from 'this week', I get results including videos uploaded 4 days ago, but this week is not yet 4 days old under any standard convention (e.g., starting the week on Mondays rather than Sundays)... -_-
fudged71 2y ago
Am I crazy or does the guidelines page not contain the guidelines? https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/ Maybe because I’m on mobile?
- caseyohara 2y ago
  The guidelines are hidden in the menu in the top-right on mobile.

mdaniel 2y ago

> The Plain Writing Act of 2010 was signed on October 13, 2010. The law requires that federal agencies use clear government communication that the public can understand and use. well, no shit! that's amazing Thanks so much for bringing that to my attention, I'll try to see how I can incorporate those into my own process

kookamamie 2y ago

[X] Good.

aurareturn 2y ago

This is a great resource for UX design as well.

archermarks 2y ago

Wow TIL. Those before and afters are awesome and I have definitely seen this showing up in government documents. Thanks for sharing.

falcor84 2y ago

That's a great initiative, but even with these, I feel there's further opportunity to make these clearer. As a particular example, is there any reason to keep the vague "second month" in the second example [2], rather than "subsequent month" or "next month"? [2] https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/monthly-due-date/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before-and-after/mont...

im3w1l 2y ago
Yeah it's not that clear to me. My interpretation would be that if I'm reporting (whatever that means) April, then May would be the first month following, and hence June would be the second month following. Hence the last day I could submit would be June 15th (paper) or June 25th (electronic).
- falcor84 2y ago
  Oh, wow, I think you're absolutely right and I entirely misread that (supposedly "plain") explanation. Having an example, like the one you gave, in the text would be really useful!
iterateoften 2y ago
Lots of ambiguity with “next”. It’s always so hard to describe “next Wednesday” if it’s Monday or “next week” if it’s Saturday. My friends from non English countries get very confused that somehow “next Wednesday” when it’s Monday might not mean two days from now but 8 days from now. And how two days in that instance would be referred as “this Wednesday” or “this coming Wednesday” Which is different way of talking. If you were sitting by the road counting cars and you are at car “n”, Saying “the next car” would refer to car n+1. If your counting wednesdays you experienced “next Wednesday” technically refers to n+2 I stopped saying “this <day>” or “next <day>” and now just say “Wednesday the 25th” for instance.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- pxc 2y ago
  > It’s always so hard to describe “next Wednesday” if it’s Monday 'Next Wednesday' is always the Wednesday of the calendar week following the current calendar week; doesn't matter what day of the week it currently is. 'This Wednesday' is always the Wednesday of current week on the calendar— even if that day is in the past. Is it quirky that this expression doesn't instead mean 'the next Wednesday that will occur'? Yes, definitely. But I don't see how it's difficult to describe what it actually does mean. > I stopped saying “this <day>” or “next <day>” and now just say “Wednesday the 25th” for instance. I love this. Indexicals in general can be tricky, and I love expressions that rely less or very little at all on context. Sometimes when a friend is telling a complicated story I'll ask them to repeat something tbey just said but with no use of pronouns, for instance, and it always makes interpretation much easier. As much as I think the actual idioms are perfectly describable, they are somewhat prominently misused. One of my pet peeves is how YouTube's search filters uses its time restriction phrases incorrectly: it says 'today' to mean 'within the past 24 hours', 'this week' to mean 'within the past week', 'this year' to mean 'within the past year', etc. It's Tuesday, and when I search for videos with an upload date from 'this week', I get results including videos uploaded 4 days ago, but this week is not yet 4 days old under any standard convention (e.g., starting the week on Mondays rather than Sundays)... -_-

fudged71 2y ago

Am I crazy or does the guidelines page not contain the guidelines? https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/ Maybe because I’m on mobile?

caseyohara 2y ago
The guidelines are hidden in the menu in the top-right on mobile.