Comments on: hmmm…. http://mp285.com/2007/12/185/ wide world. in a web. Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:47:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Vanessa Villaverde http://mp285.com/2007/12/185/#comment-66 Vanessa Villaverde Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:50:36 +0000 http://mp285.com/2007/185/#comment-66 I recently underwent a training on how to simplify my writing on healthcare so that I could write about topics that could be published on a federal agency's website ( I won't name which one). The training was on "plain language", a concept that re emerged in Bill Clinton's June 1, 1998 memorandum asking federal agencies to simplify language in the federal register by January of 1999. Though this proposal has supposedly been meet, studies continue to find that government agencies speak in a language inaccessible to the public. Here is a link to a study that finds government agency websites are, on average, at an 11th grade reading level. If wikipedia says that most Amercan high schoolers read at an 8th grade level and most college graduates at a 10th grade level, it appears that only those with a graduate degree can access important websites. There is both the immediate problem that most Americans cannot understand how their tax dollars are being used and the complicated divide between the governing and those governed. I wish literacy courses were the answer. On a positive note, there are younger people within the government who are trying to do more than speak in "plan language", but trying to make government more accessible. I recently underwent a training on how to simplify my writing on healthcare so that I could write about topics that could be published on a federal agency’s website ( I won’t name which one). The training was on “plain language”, a concept that re emerged in Bill Clinton’s June 1, 1998 memorandum asking federal agencies to simplify language in the federal register by January of 1999. Though this proposal has supposedly been meet, studies continue to find that government agencies speak in a language inaccessible to the public.

Here is a link to a study that finds government agency websites are, on average, at an 11th grade reading level. If wikipedia says that most Amercan high schoolers read at an 8th grade level and most college graduates at a 10th grade level, it appears that only those with a graduate degree can access important websites. There is both the immediate problem that most Americans cannot understand how their tax dollars are being used and the complicated divide between the governing and those governed. I wish literacy courses were the answer.

On a positive note, there are younger people within the government who are trying to do more than speak in “plan language”, but trying to make government more accessible.

]]> By: Variety Pack: Damn, You're Good. Here's some Bad & Ugly. | Objectify This http://mp285.com/2007/12/185/#comment-65 Variety Pack: Damn, You're Good. Here's some Bad & Ugly. | Objectify This Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:15:17 +0000 http://mp285.com/2007/185/#comment-65 [...] this, you’re a genius. I just took this test (which I got from Apostropha who got it from $3.60 who got if from brownfemipower), and some algorithms indicated that you must be a genius to read [...] [...] this, you’re a genius. I just took this test (which I got from Apostropha who got it from $3.60 who got if from brownfemipower), and some algorithms indicated that you must be a genius to read [...]

]]> By: well well « Apostropha http://mp285.com/2007/12/185/#comment-64 well well « Apostropha Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:28:37 +0000 http://mp285.com/2007/185/#comment-64 [...] got the link to the test from $3.60, who in turn got it from brownfemipower (where there is also a good discussion in comments about [...] [...] got the link to the test from $3.60, who in turn got it from brownfemipower (where there is also a good discussion in comments about [...]

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