David,

I assume you are aware of plainlanguage.gov ... unfortunately many of the
before and after examples they propose as good ... are not so good in my
opinion. So before a large effort as you describe can be successful, there
needs to be some work making sure that the "plain language" requirements are
carried out in a helpful way.

Further, it is becoming more and more apparent to me that the focus on
document rewrites and redesigns will not solve the issue. A good document
mired in a bad system is still ineffective (if it is used at all) and may
even be harmful.

fwiw,

andrew pleasant



On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 11:00 AM, David J. Rosen <djrosen at comcast.net> wrote:


> Colleagues,

>

> An article in the Straits Times of Singapore, "Katrina hit US adult

> literacy"  [ http://tinyurl.com/6fhd38 ] , describes how the

> hurricane devastated adult literacy services in New Orleans and the

> slow road to restoration. The author describes a critical set of

> contextualized reading and writing skills -- filling out a government

> form to get housing help after a natural disaster.  A large number of

> adults who need to complete these forms, because they did not learn

> to read and write well in school, cannot do it. The author also looks

> at the other side of the literacy coin: the forms and their

> instructions are needlessly difficult for anyone to read.

>

> For New Orleans, and for the country, we need a four-pronged national

> effort to:

>

> 1) legally require plain English federal government documents,

> especially ones that individuals are expected to complete,

>

> 2) create free national functional context curricula that will help

> adults learn to read and correctly complete specific government forms,

>

> 3) provide local literacy program models where reading and writing

> skills are taught in the highly motivating context of completing the

> form, at times that are convenient for adult learners. Volunteer

> tutors or classroom teachers could be trained to help adults read and

> complete a particular form; in the process they could help some

> adults read and write better; and they could inform the adults about

> opportunities to continue their literacy instruction if they wish to,

> and

>

> 4) provide a well-organized, easy-to-navigate, plain English web site

> that includes:

>        a)  .pdfs of all the government forms so they could be printed out

> as needed,

>        b) the forms in hypertext, with links to written and audio file

> definitions and explanations of technical or legal terms, examples of

> correctly completed sections, and

>             elaborations as needed,

>        c)  a hypertext, step-by-step process for completing each form that

> includes a writing box for responding to each step, resulting in a

> completed form that could be reviewed,

>              printed, and submitted electronically when all the

> steps are finished, and

>        d) careful field-testing with low-literate adults of b)and c) above.

>

> Are there examples or models or 2) , 3) and 4) that already exist? If

> so, could you let me know about them, please?  Thanks.

>

> David J. Rosen

> djrosen at comcast.net

>

>

>

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