5 benefits of adopting plain language

David Siecker calims to be America's best communicator... Well, he does a fine job of explaining the good in plain language:

5 Benefits of adopting plain language:

* Reduce the amount of time it takes for individuals or organizations to comply with your instructions. With plain language, your customers can understand your message and instructions the first time they read your documents.
* Cut down on the number of customer service phone calls, inquiries, and complaints. When people don’t understand the information we provide, they contact your front-line staff, hotlines, or government contracted service providers to understand how to act on the information we provide.
* Increase the likelihood that we get the response we are seeking. Some people who receive confusing letters or unclear public documents may not do anything at all. Your letters or pamphlets may end up in the recycling bin or trash.
* Become accessible to more people. Accurate and high quality translation starts with easy-to-read English-language documents. Translators will make fewer mistakes and better convey your message when they are translating plain language documents.
* Increase company/department transparency and hold yourselves accountable for the messages we send the public.

See the full article here.

Foresight--the gift of composure

Yesterday I was in a professional office waiting room. A woman came in and exchanged a few words with the receptionist, then she said, "I didn't know what to expect".

That hit me in the gut. Most of us would never say it aloud, at least not those with insecurities, anxieties, or parents with alcoholism.

That's it, I thought, (after a few twists and turns) that is why the reader wants a real introduction. They don't want to be caught off-guard by an awkward development.
They want to be prepared for what is coming.

UPDATE-National Aboriginal Day in Canada

Anishinabek outlaw term 'aboriginal'

WHITEFISH RIVER FIRST NATION, ON,June 25 /CNW/ - Chiefs of the 42 member communities of the Anishinabek Nation have launched a campaign to eliminate the inappropriate use of the term "aboriginal".

During the annual Grand Council Assembly in this Manitoulin Island community, Chiefs endorsed a resolution that characterized the word as "another means of assimilation through the displacement of our First Nation-specific inherent and treaty rights."

"It's actually offensive to hear that term used in reference to First Nations citizens," said Grand Council Chief John Beaucage.

The resolution notes that the reference to "aboriginal rights" referred to in Section 35 of the Constitution Act of Canada "was never meant to assimilate First Nations, Metis and Inuit into a homogeneous group."

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June 21 is National Aboriginal Day because of the cultural significance of the summer solstice.

The first day of summer and longest day of the year, is celebrated as the rebirth of Mother Earth. The many Aboriginal communities mark this day as a time to celebrate their heritage.

Marking this day for First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples also recognizes their primary and founding place on this continent and their ongoing contributions as First Peoples.

The writing tip for today is that you can use the general term aboriginal, at least in Canada, to refer to First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.

Different strokes for different folks

A single post by Megan Casey offers several examples of adapting the delivery of a single message for readers with different needs or information processing styles.

Wrestling with Rudeness: Advice for Addressing Incivility

Just want to share this press release about a new book on civility:

Rude behavior can make you want to scream, but confronting a rude person can make you squirm. Given the choice between standing up to a bully and seething in silence, many people pick the latter, at a loss for how to deal with a rude person without intensifying an emotionally charged situation.

Johns Hopkins University's resident civility maven P.M. Forni takes the guesswork out of defusing more than a hundred different everyday hackle-raising scenarios in his new book, The Civility Solution: What to Do When People Are Rude (St. Martin's Press, June 10, 2008). The follow-up to his popular field guide Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct (St. Martin's Press, 2002), The Civility Solution is both an essay on rudeness and a self-defense manual.

A crucial question addressed by Forni: "How can one become the kind of person people are less likely to be rude to?" His answer: If we are consistently considerate, even in the face of rudeness, others will often match our behavior. That, he says, is the civility solution.

"Although we cannot hope to ban rudeness from our lives altogether, we can limit both its occurrences and its impact," says Forni, a professor of Italian literature and director of the Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins who has worked for more than a decade to illustrate the connections among civility, ethics and quality of life. "When we handle it well, we feel good about ourselves and reap other substantial benefits, such as healing wounded relationships. Being prepared is half the solution to any problem."

In The Civility Solution, Forni prepares his readers to handle real-life scenarios in a number of categories:

• The Near and Not So Dear: Spouses, Family, and Friends
• The Neighbors – Noisy, Nosy, and Nice
• Workplace Woes
• On the Road, In the Air, and Aboard the Train
• The World of Service
• Digital Communication

A kind soul himself, Forni does not advocate angry confrontations. Rather he believes in speaking up in defense of common decency and going out on a limb to let someone know you've been hurt rather than perpetuating the cycle of incivility.

"We teach others how to treat us by how much we are willing to endure from them," Forni says. "It is better not to endure even micro-indignities if they are really bothering you. Find the strength of character to confront that person in an assertive, nonaggressive way and say, 'This is how I feel when you say that, when you do that. I really wish you didn't.' If you keep everything bottled inside, that person will do it again."

An example of the user-friendly advice in The Civility Solution for dealing with such sticky situations is "The SIR Sequence," Forni's shorthand for "state, inform and request." Namely:

• State the facts.
• Inform the other person of the impact he or she has had on you.
• Request that the hurtful behavior not be repeated.

"Do so politely, firmly, and unapologetically," Forni says. "And do it sooner rather than later. You will be more effective and won't have to dread doing it in the future."

Forni has inspired several community-based initiatives across the country to promote civility, including in Maryland, where Howard County's Choose Civility initiative has received international media coverage. He can address a broad range of issues connected to civility and manners for any story on the subject.

Related Web sites:

P.M. Forni's Civility Web site
http://web.jhu.edu/civility

A Q&A with P.M. Forni
http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2007/22oct07/22manners.html

Choose Civility in Howard County (Md.)
http://www.choosecivility.org/