In Britain, the Local Government Association published a list of 100 words that public bodies should not use if they want to communicate effectively. That was on National Plain English Day, 11 December 2007. (I know, I'm slow but I get there.)
See the full list ... and the interesting explosion of comments that resulted. Besides those who got the point, you may note just a whiff of defensiveness in the air.
The cartoon is attached to a posting on TalkingBizNews blog.
2 comments
Mar 15, 2008 • Posted by Sandy
Would be great if anyone could tell some of the NZ government departments.
When Transit New Zealand were my client at Fronde they hated concise and clear documents and explicitly asked for about 20 of the banned words and more “fluff”.
Their favourite and most requested phrase was “best practise” which is normally used by people who try to cover over lack of knowledge and the fact that they can’t think for themselves – aaargh!
Mar 17, 2008 • Posted by rachel
Some countries have legislation that requires certain government documents to be written in plain language. So you’re not the only person who wishes this. It might be possible…
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