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Plain Language: the bottom line.
Why should we use plain language? It saves us time and money. It saves our customers time and money. And it improves compliance with requirements we impose on the public. Here are some examples.
A. Plain language means fewer calls from customers.
Old letter | Plain-language letter | |
Calls to each counselor each month | 91.4 | 16 |
Total calls each year, 10 counselors | 1128 | 192 |
Veterans Benefits form letter, Jackson MS office
B. Plain language means it takes less time for users to solve a problem (in minutes). In this study, users were asked several questions about FCC pleasure-boat radio requirements. The answers to the questions were in a regulation. Times are the average it took to answer each question.
Type of user | Old regulation | Plain-language regulation |
Experienced | 2.43 | 1.50 |
Inexperienced | 3.51 | 1.73 |
C. Plain language means customers make fewer errors.
Old form | Plain-language form | |
Error rate | 40% | 20% |
Canadian government form requesting free trees
D. Plain language means higher compliance rates.
Old form | Plain-language form | |
Compliance rate |
40% |
95% |
Required Canadian government certificate to register livestock
E. Saving the government money is one of the best reasons to write in plain language. All the examples above would result in some government savings. But here's two stories demonstrating savings more directly:
1. The first plain language regulation was a FCC regulation on operating ham radios. Before FCC issued the regulation, there were five staff members answering public calls and letters with questions about the FCC's requirements for operating ham radios. Several months after FCC issued the regulation, the questions had fallen off so far that all five staff members were moved to other jobs.
2. Every several years the Veterans Benefits Administration writes a letter to all veterans asking them to update their listing of beneficiaries in VBA's files. If a veteran dies without a valid beneficiary listed, it costs VBA several thousand dollars in research to identify one. VBA was getting a response rate of about 35% to its letter, and the agency wanted to improve the rate to 50%. They rewrote the letter in plain language, and the response rate rose to over 55%. This saves VBA about $8 million dollars every time they mail the letter.
These data are summarized from Joe Kimble's article, Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please, in volume 6 of the The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, and from information from the agencies involved.
F. In addition to saving the government and customers time and money, plain language helps improve the relationship between the government and citizens. A project of the Revenue Office in Arizona demonstrates several types of savings:
In 2006, a team within the Arizona Department of Revenue started redoing about 400 form letters into plain language, working to simplify, organize, shorten and make sure that they say what they are supposed to say in a way that doesn't require an accountant's interpretation. They also intend to revise other documents.
As of early 2008, the Department saw the following benefits:
The unclaimed property section received about 11,000 fewer phone calls in 2007 than the previous year after rewriting its letters. That has led to more time to do other work and the division was able to process about 30,000 more claims.
Employees feel better about their jobs, because they aren't answering the same questions over and over.
Surveys show customer satisfaction has gone up. A spokesperson for the office said, "We find we are getting a better response because they understand what they need to do. It has had a very positive impact on the relationship my team has with their clients."
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