Editing Plain language (section)

==History==

===Early history===
[[Cicero]] argued, "When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind."{{Citation needed|date=September 2013}}

Shakespeare parodied the pretentious style, as in the speeches of Dogberry in ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]''. 
The plain, or native style, was, in fact, an entire literary tradition during the English Renaissance, from [[John Skelton (poet)|John Skelton]] through [[Ben Jonson]] and include such poets as [[Barnabe Googe]], [[George Gascoigne]], [[Walter Raleigh]], and perhaps the later work of [[Fulke Greville]]. In addition to its purely linguistic plainness, the Plain Style employed an emphatic, pre-Petrarchan [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] (each syllable either clearly stressed or clearly unstressed).

===19th century===
By the end of the 19th century, scholars began to study the features of plain language. A. L. Sherman, a professor of English literature at the University of Nebraska, wrote ''Analytics of Literature: A Manual for the Objective Study of English Prose and Poetry'' in 1893. In this work, Sherman showed that the typical English sentence has shortened over time and that spoken English is a pattern for written English.

Sherman wrote: <blockquote>
Literary English, in short, will follow the forms of the standard spoken English from which it comes. No man should talk worse than he writes, no man writes better than he should talk.... The oral sentence is clearest because it is the product of millions of daily efforts to be clear and strong. It represents the work of the race for thousands of years in perfecting an effective instrument of communication.
</blockquote>

===1900 to 1950===
Two 1921 works, Harry Kitson's "The Mind of the Buyer", and [[Edward L. Thorndike]]'s "The Teacher's Word Book" picked up where Sherman left off. Kitson's work was the first to apply empirical psychology to advertising. He advised the use of short words and sentences. Thorndike's work contained the frequency ratings of 10,000 words. He recommended using the ratings in his book to grade books not only for students in schools but also for average readers and adults learning English. Thorndike wrote:

<blockquote>
It is commonly assumed that children and adults prefer trashy stories in large measure because they are more exciting and more stimulating in respect to sex. There is, however, reason to believe that greater ease of reading in respect to vocabulary, construction, and facts, is a very important cause of preference. A count of the vocabulary of "best sellers" and a summary of it in terms of our list would thus be very instructive.
</blockquote>

The 1930s saw many studies on how to make texts more readable. In 1931, Douglas Tyler and Ralph Waples published the results of their two-year study, "What People Want to Read About". In 1934, Ralph Ojemann, [[Edgar Dale]], and Ralph Waples published two studies on writing for adults with limited reading ability. In 1935, educational psychologist [[William S. Gray]] teamed up with Bernice Leary to publish their study, "What Makes a Book Readable".

[[George Orwell]]'s 1946 essay "[[Politics and the English Language]]" decried the pretentious diction, meaninglessness, vagueness, and worn-out idioms of political jargon. In 1979, the [[Plain English Campaign]] was founded in London to combat "gobbledegook, jargon and legalese".<ref>Plain English Campaign. Retrieved August 16, 2011, from: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk</ref>

===1951 to 2000===
[[Lyman Bryson]] at Teachers College in Columbia University led efforts to supply average readers with more books of substance dealing with science and current events. Bryson's students include Irving Lorge and [[Rudolf Flesch]], who became leaders in the plain-language movement. In 1975, Flesch collaborated with [[J. Peter Kincaid]] to create the [[Flesch-Kincaid readability test]], which uses an algorithm to produce grade level scores that predict the level of education required to read the selected text.<ref>Kinkaid, J.P., Fishburne, R.P., R.L., & Chissom, B.S. (1975). Derivation of New Readability Formulas (Automated Readability Index, Fog Count, and Flesch Reading Ease formula) for Navy Enlisted Personnel. Research Branch Report 8-75. Chief of Naval Technical Training: Naval Air Station Memphis.</ref> The instrument looks at word length (number of letters) and sentence length (number of words) and produces a score that is tied to a U.S. grade school level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can read the document.

Others who later led plain language and readability research include educator Edgar Dale of Ohio State, [[Jeanne Chall|Jeanne S. Chall]] of the Reading Laboratory of Harvard, and George R. Klare of Ohio University. Their efforts spurred the publication of over 200 readability formulas and 1,000 published studies on readability.

Beginning in 1935, a series of literacy surveys showed that the average reader in the U.S. was an adult of limited reading ability. Today, the average adult in the U.S. reads at the 9th-grade level.

Access to health information, educational and [[economic development]] opportunities, and government programs is often referred to in a social justice context. To ensure more community members can access this information, many adult educators, legal writers, and social program developers use plain language principles when they develop public documents{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}}. The goal of plain language translation is to increase accessibility for those with lower literacy levels.

In the United States, the movement towards plain language legal writing began with the 1963 book ''Language of the Law'', by David Mellinkoff.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=D.|first=Johnson, Lori|date=2015|title=Say the Magic Word: A Rhetorical Analysis of Contract Drafting Choices|url=http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/897/|journal=Scholarly Commons @ UNLV Law|language=en}}</ref> However, the movement was popularized by Richard Wydick's 1979 book ''Plain English for Lawyers.''<ref name=":0" /> This was followed by famous plain language [[promissory note]]s by Nationwide Mutual Insurance and Citibank in the 1970s.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Kimble|first=Joseph|date=December 1992|title=Plain English: A Charter for Clear Writing|url=https://www.michbar.org/file/generalinfo/plainenglish/pdfs/92_dec.pdf|journal=Michigan Bar Journal}}</ref>

Concerned about the large number of suits against its customers to collect bad debts, the bank voluntarily made the decision to implement plain language policies in 1973.<ref>Asprey, M., (2003). Plain language around the world. Plain language for lawyers. The Federation Press. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from {{cite web |url=http://www.federationpress.com.au/pdf/AspreyCh4Exp.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2008-09-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080728112934/http://www.federationpress.com.au/pdf/AspreyCh4Exp.pdf |archive-date=2008-07-28 }}</ref> That same decade, the consumer-rights movement won legislation that required plain language in contracts, insurance policies, and government regulations. American [[law school]]s began requiring students to take legal writing classes that encouraged them to use plain English as much as possible and to avoid legal jargon, except when absolutely necessary.  Public outrage with the skyrocketing number of unreadable government forms led to the [[Paperwork Reduction Act]] of 1980.

In 1972, the Plain Language Movement received practical political application, when President [[Richard Nixon]] decreed that the "Federal Register be written in layman's terms". On March 23, 1978, U.S. President [[Jimmy Carter]] signed Executive Order 12044, which said that federal officials must see that each regulation is "written in plain English and understandable to those who must comply with it".<ref name=plainwriting>
[http://www.plain-writing-association.org/plain-writing-background-legislative-history.htm "Background: Plain Writing Legislative History, 2007-2010"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317110810/http://www.plain-writing-association.org/plain-writing-background-legislative-history.htm |date=2012-03-17 }}, 2010, Irwin Berent, Plain Writing Association</ref> President Ronald Reagan rescinded these orders in 1981, but many political agencies continued to follow them. By 1991, eight states had also passed legislation related to plain language. Plain Language Association International (PLAIN) was formed in 1993 as the Plain Language Network. Its membership is international; it was incorporated as a non-profit organization in Canada in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=About PLAIN |url=http://plainlanguagenetwork.org/networkindex.html |publisher=Plain Language Association International |access-date=2008-11-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081110220806/http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/networkindex.html |archive-date=2008-11-10 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Speech by SEC Commissioner: Remarks at the Plain Language Association International's Fifth International Conference|publisher=[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]|year=2005|url=https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/spch110405cag.htm|access-date=2008-11-12}}</ref> 
In June 1998, President [[Bill Clinton]] issued a memorandum that called for executive departments and agencies to use plain language in all government documents.<ref name=plainwriting/> Vice President [[Al Gore]] subsequently led a plain language initiative that formed a group called the Plain Language Action Network (PLAIN) to provide plain language training to government agencies.

===21st century===
PLAIN provided guidance to federal [[Executive agency|executive agencies]] when President [[Barack Obama]] signed the [[Plain Writing Act of 2010]], which required federal executive agencies to put all new and revised covered documents into plain language.<ref>{{USPL|111|274}}§4(b)</ref> The Act's sponsor, U.S. Representative [[Bruce Braley]], noted upon its passage that "The writing of documents in the standard vernacular English language will bolster and increase the accountability of government within America and will continue to more effectively save time and money in this country."<ref name="ABC News">{{cite web|title=Obama Signs 'Plain Writing' Law|url=https://abcnews.go.com/WN/obama-signs-law-understand/story?id=11902841|work=ABC World News with Diane Sawyer|publisher=ABC News|access-date=17 March 2013}}</ref>

Plain language is also gaining traction in U.S. courts and [[legal aid]] agencies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dyson |first1=Dana D. |last2=Schellenberg |first2=Kathryn |title=Access to Justice: The Readability of Legal Services Corporation Legal Aid Internet Services |journal=Journal of Poverty |date=4 March 2017 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=142–165 |doi=10.1080/10875549.2016.1186773|s2cid=156782675 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McLernon |first1=Sean |title=Why Courts Need to Embrace Plain Language |journal=Georgetown Journal on Poverty and Law |date=2016 |volume=24 |page=381}}</ref> California was the first state to adopt plain language court forms and instructions, for which it received the 2003 [[Burton Awards for Legal Achievement|Burton Award]] for Outstanding Reform.<ref>"About", Civil Jury Instructions Resource Center. Retrieved November 28, 2011, from: www.courts.ca.gov/partners/313.htm</ref> A 2006 comparative study of plain language court forms concluded that "plain language court forms and instructions are better understood, easier to use, and more economical".<ref>Mindlin, Maria. "Is Plain Language better? A Comparative Readability Study of Plain Language Court Forms", Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, Vol. 10, 2005-2006. Retrieved November 28, 2011, from: www.transcend.net/library/html/PLStudy.html</ref>

The [[European Union]] provides standards for making information easy to read and understand.<ref>European standards for making information easy to read and understand. Retrieved September 12, 2022, from: https://www.inclusion-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/EN_Information_for_all.pdf</ref> The rules are comparable to the rules for plain language. Based in Germany there is a dictionary for plain language called Hurraki.<ref>Hurraki.org Plain Language Dictionary. Retrieved March 20, 2016, from: http://hurraki.org/english</ref> In [[France]], a 2002 decision by the [[Constitutional Council (France)|Constitutional Council]] recognized a constitutional goal of ensuring the "clarity and intelligibility" of French law.<ref>Cons. const., n° 2001-455 DC, 12 janv. 2002. from: http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/francais/les-decisions/acces-par-date/decisions-depuis-1959/2002/2001-455-dc/decision-n-2001-455-dc-du-12-janvier-2002.668.html</ref> In 2013 the Israeli Knesset passed service accessibility regulations which mandated the use of simple language and/or language simplification (Hebrew = פישוט לשוני),<ref>{{cite web |title=תקנות שוויון זכויות לאנשים עם מוגבלות (התאמות נגישות לשירות), תשע"ג-5102 |url=https://www.justice.gov.il/Units/NetzivutShivyon/documents/1160_takhanegishutlesherut.pdf |website=Israel Department of Justice |publisher=The Israel Department of Justice |access-date=15 October 2019 |ref=p. 7}}</ref> which were subsequently codified in 2015 for implementation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Accessibility of the built environment: Communication (in Hebrew) |url=https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/legalinfo/israeli_accessibility_standards_pdf/he/sitedocs_tekenyisraeli1918helek4_feb15.pdf |publisher=The Standards Institution of Israel |access-date=15 October 2019 |ref=p. 14}}</ref>

[[ISO]] has formed a Working Group within Technical Committee [[ISO/TC 37]] to develop plain language standards and guidelines. Their work began officially towards the end of 2019. It has published standard ISO 24495-1 in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ISO 24495-1:2023: Plain language – Part 1: Governing principles and guidelines |url=https://www.iso.org/standard/78907.html |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=ISO |language=en}}</ref>