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> Which businesses and industries should use plain language? > Some examples of the benefits of plain language Why use plain language? No business or organisation can afford to waste
valuable resources producing documents that are dense and difficult
to read. People don't have the time or energy to wade through gobbledygook.
When we communicate in plain language, misunderstandings disappear
and the reader actually reads the information and uses it. Staff
and management don't spend precious time explaining what they meant.
Which businesses and industries should use plain language? All organisations can benefit from using plain language. Not-for-profit and the public service sector improve their reputation in the eyes of the public, and private industry gains a competitive advantage. Organisations reaping rewards from using plain language include government departments, shire councils, banking and finance industry, insurance industry, law firms and legal advisory services and information technology companies. Some examples of the benefits of plain language 1. The Capita Insurance Company did a study of errors made on 17 different application forms. They calculated that it cost the company $551,465 each year to correct those errors. They decided to amalgamate and streamline their forms into one plain language version. That process cost the company less than $100,000 yet reduced the error rate dramatically. After the changes, the company spent $15,441 each year to correct errors - only 2% of what it was spending previously. (reference: Plain Language Service Cost and Time Benefits, see www.pls.cpha.ca) 2. In the mid 1980s, The Law Reform Commission of Victoria completely redesigned and rewrote a court summons form that was difficult to interpret. The old form required an excessive amount of clerical time to process. The new plain language version allowed such significant time savings that 26 staff were reassigned to other duties. The savings were calculated at $400,000. (reference: Robert D. Eagleson, Writing in Plain
English, 3. Large law firms are leading the way by using plain language to communicate better with their clients and provide value-added service. Phillips Fox state: "our rule of thumb is that if a clear meaning does not present itself to us on the first reading of a clause, something must be wrong." Mallesons, Stephens, Jaques have set up a Plain English Unit employing the expertise of internationally recognised linguist Professor Robert Eagleson to meet their service goal: to combine accuracy with clarity. 4.
The General Insurance Code of Practice, introduced in 1994 and currently
adopted by over 100 companies throughout Australia, requires insurers
to present insurance policies in plain language with design, 5. In recent years, companies issuing regular bills such as telephone, electricity and gas services have designed their layouts to make all the billing information easy to read and identify. They have reduced the number of enquiries and complaints significantly. |
Streamlines
procedures and paperwork