Little Plain Language Progress

[Bob Fitzke]

> There has been a sustained effert in legal circles to encourage drafting
> legal documents in "plain English". The Michigan Bar Journal has a monthly
> column on the subject.

Bob Fitzke

> I think the rules and parameters differ by nature and function of
> documents. Over the past 2-3 years, I have been involved with
> readability issues for publshers of health newsletterrs (who seem
> finally to have figured out that if consumers could read the newsletters,
> it would be helpful!) and comprehensibility issues in jury instructions in
> Tennessee. It is harder, I think to edit medical and legal documents to be
> readable by "average adults" than other kinds of texts. Nonetheless,
> rewriting can help enormously.
>
> Bethany