Circular Letter No. 461

February 11, 2000

TO: Printing and Publishing Officials of the Federal Government

SUBJECT: Rider Requisitions for the NLRB Style Manual: A Guide for Legal Writing in Plain English

The Government Printing Office (GPO) is now accepting rider orders for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) publication entitled NLRB Style Manual: A Guide for Legal Writing in Plain English. This publication was first published in 1983 and placed on sale nationwide by GPO. The NLRB is publishing its January 2000 revision of the NLRB Style Manual in a continuing effort to encourage the use of plain English in government and other legal documents, and describes the revision as follows:

The NLRB Style Manual: A Guide for Legal Writing in Plain English encourages compliance with the President's June 1, 1998, "Memorandum on Plain Language" for all Executive Departments and Agencies, requiring that "...the Federal Government's writing be in plain language. By using plain language, we send a clear message about what the Government is doing, what it requires, and what services it offers. Plain language saves the Government and the private sector time, effort, and money."

The manual advances the use of plain English in place of both legalese and "incomprehensible Latin expressions." Regarding legalese, the manual encourages writers to make a conscious effort to avoid using (1) the words "said, such, aforecited, aforementioned, aforesaid" in place of "the, this, these," (2) the superfluous word "duly," (3) the inexact words "forthwith, herewith, and/or," (4) the word "respective" when "the" suffices, (5) the dispensable word "respectively," and (6) the words "same, such" in place of "it" or "them." It points out that "hereby, herein, hereinafter, hereto, therefor, therefrom, therein, thereof, therewith, to wit, unto, vis-à-vis, viz., whereby, and wherein" are all "legal jargon that should be omitted or replaced with plain English-words in common usage."

The manual lists preferred plain English words for many Latin expressions that are mystifying to most of the public. Examples are the Latin expressions, "in haec verba" and "nunc pro tunc," which in plain English simply mean "verbatim" and "retroactive."

The revised, 70-page manual is now a quick reference book, providing an extensive Index to comprehensive illustrations for using simple, clear, concise, and easily understood language. The lists of "Wordy Phrases" to avoid, "The Right Word," "The Right Preposition," and the "Rules for Singular and Plural" are useful guides not only to plain English, but also to proper grammar and good usage. The 34-page two-column Index contains 2,977 entries for quickly locating the words, phrases, and other illustrations used in the manual.

Although the rider rate for this publication has yet to be determined, your requisition prior to production allows the printing of these copies during the regular press run. This results in substantial savings, which we are then able to pass along to you. (Please note that the rider rate applies to single destination, local delivery orders only. Mailing costs, if incurred, will comprise an additional charge.)

To take advantage of the rider rate, please forward your requisitions (Standard Form 1) to GPO by March 3, 2000. Please also specify NLRB requisition number 0-00057 and GPO jacket number 464-138 on your requisition.

If you have any questions, or require additional information, please contact your GPO Account Representative.

Sincerely,

JIM BRADLEY
Director, Customer Services

Questions or comments regarding this service? Contact wwwadmin@gpo.gov .

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