C is for Consent

The Wall Street Journal report "The Informed Patient" starts with this unsurprising info:
"Informed consent may be the biggest misnomer in medicine: Studies show that most patients don't read the forms they sign before undergoing surgery or medical treatment. More than half of those who do read the forms don't understand them, and only a quarter of forms include all of the data patients need to make an informed decision."

The Rule to Follow Even If It does Not Apply!

General Rules and Regulations
promulgated under the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Rule 13a-19 -- Plain English Presentation of Specified Information

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1. Any information included or incorporated by reference in a report filed under section 13(a) of the Act that is required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 402, 403, 404 or 407 of Regulation S-B or Item 402, 403, 404 or 407 of Regulation S-K must be presented in a clear, concise and understandable manner. You must prepare the disclosure using the following standards:
   
   
   1. Present information in clear, concise sections, paragraphs and sentences;
      
      
   2. Use short sentences;
      
      
   3. Use definite, concrete, everyday words;
      
      
   4. Use the active voice;
      
      
   5. Avoid multiple negatives;
      
      
   6. Use descriptive headings and subheadings;
      
      
   7. Use a tabular presentation or bullet lists for complex material, wherever possible;
      
      
   8. Avoid legal jargon and highly technical business and other terminology;
      
      
   9. Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and
      
      
   10. In designing the presentation of the information you may include pictures, logos, charts, graphs and other design elements so long as the design is not misleading and the required information is clear. You are encouraged to use tables, schedules, charts and graphic illustrations that present relevant data in an understandable manner, so long as such presentations are consistent with applicable disclosure requirements and consistent with other information in the document. You must draw graphs and charts to scale. Any information you provide must not be misleading.
       
       

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Note to Rule 240.13a-20.

In drafting the disclosure to comply with this section, you should avoid the following:

1. Legalistic or overly complex presentations that make the substance of the disclosure difficult to understand;
   
   
2. Vague "boilerplate" explanations that are imprecise and readily subject to different interpretations;
   
   
3. Complex information copied directly from legal documents without any clear and concise explanation of the provision(s); and
   
   
4. Disclosure repeated in different sections of the document that increases the size of the document but does not enhance the quality of the information.

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Regulatory History

71 FR 53158, 53261, Sept. 8, 2006.

Blogging for Action on the Environment and Writing as Action

I had planned to blog about writing with clarity under the monthly campaign by Joanna Young at Confident Writing .

But when I started scanning items in my blog reader, I was reminded that today is Blog Action Day to save the environment.

My mind was working on the problem of relating writing with clarity, integrity, and authenticity to the environment, which was raising something about a post I saw which draws a distinction between the market and the audience for public relations writers.

When I got to Confident Writing, Joanna's post is on the day's topic. I only scanned her post, but she seems to suggest that business cut back on paper if we writers cut down the number of words we take to say anything, and thus reduce the number of trees cut down.

It is a great idea, but it triggered my main concern with all the other environmental posts I read this morning. They were all aimed at individuals while major corporations and legislators and government get a free ride today.

Now back to the post at All Book Marketing:

In book marketing you cater to a target market (people who will buy your book). In book publicity and author publicity you cater to a target audience (includes your target market, but you can have many target audiences in addition to them, like niche groups, specific members of the media, etc.).

After reading this, I was playing with how to extrapolate the distinction to use it in teaching writing process.

Now my head is in a twirl. We have these issues to pull together to try to get a blog post up today:

1. Save the environment.
2. Write with clarity, integrity, and authenticity.
3. Apply the distinction between market and audience to our problem.
   
4. What is the message?

So I took a nap.

I, Cheryl Stephens, say this with clarity from a place of integrity and authenticity and, with genuine respect for my brother and sister bloggers, I offer this message:

• The environment is our lives. We must defend our lives and the lives of those who follow us.
• All our personal efforts cannot match those that are needed to meet this challenge. Those who are the greatest polluters must be stopped. They cannot avoid the cost of correction by threatening us with the collapse of the economy.
• The collapse of any economy built on the monopoly capitalist/imperialist model to serve only the aim of maximizing profit,will collapse of its own sins eventually. We do not have to continue to suffer its sins; we must design the solution and plan the future.
• Let us act, whether we write, sing, dance, perform, picket, or march, to reach:
• the market
• to pressure legislators for laws to protect the environment rather than their favorite financiers and business cronies
• to demand that government enforce the laws to protect the environment from rapacious capital
• the audience
• the people whose interest is in saving the environment now for future generations
• the opinion-makers in the media and academia

• The message is that it is already too late to solve this problem by modifying lifestyles and private consumption.

Whew!