Plain English: It's the law

[Baron, Dennis E]

There's a new post on the Web of Language:

Plain English: It's the law

The Plain Writing Act of 2010<http://beta.congress.gov/111/plaws/publ274/PLAW-111publ274.htm> seeks “to enhance citizen access to Government information and services by establishing that Government documents issued to the public must be written clearly,” and requires federal agencies to “use plain writing in every covered document of the agency that the agency issues or substantially revises.” Legislators could have said all that more clearly, with fewer words, and in the active voice, but they felt no need to follow the plain language guidelines the law calls for.

Read the full post on the Web of Language:  http://bit.ly/1fwOWm1


Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

mobile: 217-840-0776
English Dept: 217-333-2390
fax: 217-333-4321

http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron<http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron>

read the Web of Language:
http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage<http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage>

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