Plain Language Academy Blog - PlainLanguageAcademy

Trends in plain language

8/28/2018

Plain language has become a global movement. Writers, editors, designers, testers, trainers, leaders are all connecting, sharing and benefitting. I presented on Trends in Plain Language to the Editors Canada 2018 Conference and the SA Professional Editors' Guild workshop. Here's the video highlights courtesy of SA PEG group.

Watch on our Plain Language Academy Youtube Channel

Use clear visuals to create an impression

4/23/2018

Presentations make for a competitive challenge. We prepare them, watch them and try to remember them. So, what makes one stand out? The use of simple, strong, clear, relatable language and images that connect with audiences. All these are key components of plain language. Here are ideas on how to increase the use of clear visuals and the impact of your next presentation.

Integrating plain language guidelines

Marketingmag.com.au points out the weaknesses of presentations junky with charts, jargon and top heavy with text. Plain language guidelines can solve all these challenges. If you commit to clear language, concise messages and simple images that support your ideas, people will relate better and remember longer. Integrate plain language guidelines for your content and visuals to make your presentation memorable.

Inspiring audiences

Presentation software is no longer exclusive. And, audiences come with high expectations. How can you meet them? In her article, ‘Choosing the right visuals’, Emma Bannister quotes research showing that 90% of what our brain processes is visual. A picture really can be worth a thousand words. The clear communication rules of simplicity apply here too.

Rule 1: make sure the visual supports the text.
Rule 2: design and present visuals that are audience-friendly.
Rule 3: use real settings, people and locations whenever you can.

Always ask, and preferably to a test audience, what viewers think of the content, the visuals, the presentation. Put people first and you’ll experience presentation power. After all, it is them we have to inspire.

Impressions that last

Presenters can use clear design and presentation guidelines to enhance engagement. Gov.uk demonstrates how they committed to using simple slides to achieve memorable presentations. Choose a presentation style that supports clear information and visuals, and stick to it. Consistency in visuals is another way to have an impact.

Making an outstanding presentation relies on clarity, simplicity and strong visual impact. Set plain language guidelines, involve a test audience for feedback and be prepared to make changes to meet their needs. If you can confidently say you kept it simple, clear and really connected with visuals, you are heading for presentation success with some help from plain language guidelines.

Want to learn more, take a PlainLanguageAcademy.com course.

Editors Canada Conference 2018, May 25-27, Saskatoon: Plain Language Stream

Inclusion rider—where plain language meets plain speaking

3/7/2018

When Frances McDormand said the words “inclusion rider”, during her Academy Awards Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech, it meant so much more than the two words themselves. Plain language is most often practiced around the written word, presented on paper or online. But, when you mix in speaker, setting, audience and context, words can take on a much more dynamic meaning.

Defining "inclusion rider"

Not everyone would have a clear understanding of the legal implications of the words “inclusion rider”, but would use their familiarity with each term individually. McDormand herself is reported to have only recently become familiar with this contract option. But, in their legal sense, in the acting profession, here is how Wikipedia defines them:

“An inclusion rider or equity rider is a provision added to a contract of an actor to ensure that casting and production staff are more representative and meet a certain level of diversity…”

When a production company agrees to this rider, but doesn’t meet it, consequences can result. So, you take two plain words, mix in a legal connotation, and their meaning and impact can greatly change.

Plain speaking and presentation impacts

Inclusion researcher Dr. Stacy Smith presented data outlining the film industry’s inequalities in a TED Talk, highlighting the point that A-listers (top actors) can lead change with inclusion riders. That’s one group McDormand was addressing in her Oscar speech.

But, the impact of those two words were super-enhanced by three environmental conditions because McDormand had:

just accepted an Oscar in front of captive live and global TV audiences
key decision-makers, in movies and media, in her audience
audience participation to back up her claim.

She had power, presentation and people all influencing her words. The impact was incredible.

Combine plain language and clear design

On paper and online, we often don’t have that kind of influence. So, plain language is all the more important to get our messages across with the intended meaning, to the intended audience, generating the intended outcome. The next time you write content for a document, website or speech, consider the impact using plain language can have, especially if it is supported by clear visuals. The combined effect of plain language and clear design can be memorable. That's what we want in our communication.

PlainLanguageAcademy.com 2018 course line-up. Register now.

Clear Design and Plain Language Basics begin April 1.

Advanced: Editing for Plainer Legal Writing begins April 10.

Five plain language training activities to motivate your team

11/21/2017

Plain language still evokes many questions. What is it all about? How does it work? What benefits are there? You can simply answer the questions. Or, you can ask for some time to do a training exercise to bridge the knowledge gap. This can be anything from a short team training exercise, a learning-at-lunch program, presentation to key leaders or an event keynote presentation. Of course, you can run a workshop. So, what are some of your options?

Draw Personas

Audience awareness plays a huge part in plain language. You need a detailed picture of your audience for your team to create, commit to and use throughout the project. Personas involve drawing pictures or creating profiles of your audience using research on their lifestyle, cultural, social, professional and personal activities and values. Usability.gov has an excellent description of how to do personas. I find it a fun activity to open a training activity or for team building.

Develop content for a style guide

Integrating plain language guidelines into an existing style guide or creating a stand-alone guide is a great investment with a long shelf life. Focus on jargon and simple words that can replace your organizations in-house language. Everyone appreciates a writing resource. They save time, create shared techniques, enhance peoples’ skills. Integrating it into an existing style guide increases its value and can be a great stepping stone to a learning event.

Create a plain language checklist

Plain language checklists are available online. Most are very generic. Get your communications and plain language project teams together to brainstorm a checklist specific to your task, your audience or organization. This increases colleagues’ understanding of, skills for and commit to plain language.

Carry out an audit

Without embarrassing or intimidating anyone, carry out a plain language audit. Gather a team and collect a variety of documents or information sources and measure against selected plain language guidelines. Share the findings and as a group come up with recommendations for future information.

Apply for an award

Awards offer several opportunities for learning and committing to plain language. It helps others see what the standards are in the profession. If you are recognized, you have motivation to move forward with your plans. PLAIN ( Plain Language Association InterNational) offers members opportunities to be recognized at its conferences. Other organizations offer annual awards. Just participating can be rewarding.

Integrate training into your plain language projects, style guides, training plans. Reap the benefits.

Plain language is customer service

8/14/2017

Plain language is customer service. Photo courtesy of BigStock.

As I holidayed this summer, in Canada and in the US, I found myself comparing levels of and styles of customer service. Experiencing a lack of clarity in instructions, directions and information, it reminded me that plain language truly is a form of customer service excellence.

Any business can gain an advantage by using plain language. In preparing for my presentation The Solution to Persuading Plain Language Sceptics—Training for the PLAIN 2017 Conference: Improving Client Relationships, I became even more convinced we need to really persuade clients—internal and external—to integrate plain language with customer relations initiatives.

What benefits does plain language provide?

Unhappy clients can mean a loss of business and negative publicity. It can affect staff morale, productivity and commitment. No one wants these. Incorporating plain language and supporting it with training offers huge benefits for your staff and clients:

greater effectiveness
improved team skills and confidence
enhanced brand, services and reputation.

There is no one-size-fits-all plain language solution. But with ample guidelines available and consultants offering services such as writing, designing and training, you can really make progress building a plain language commitment that suits your and your clients' needs.

What are my plain language training needs?

The best way to plan your plain language training is to begin with a thorough audit of what communication training has been or is being delivered. Identify key customer relations problems—existing or potential. Then assess who needs which skills or knowledge in clear communication. Once all these are agreed, the plan can take shape. Plain language training can be stand-alone, integrated or connected to a specific project.

What should we focus on?

Audience: who you are targeting—internal and external.
Purpose: why you are doing it, the problems you are solving, what results you want.
Key skills needed: identify as part of planning and evaluating.

This basic approach will form a strong foundation, whether you are in-house discovering staff needs or client issues, acting as a consultant, or a trainer providing workshops.

What results should we look for?

Integrate plain language training or consulting into every customer service initiative. Ensure staff can effectively connect with clients using clear communication for problem solving and promotions. Look for and measure the improvements:

fewer complaints
faster services
happier clients.

Check the PlainLanguageAcademy.com Calendar for courses that can help. We offer three options for Course 6: Plain Language Project, including coaching and consulting combinations.

Five easy ways to do plain language testing

6/21/2017

There are simple solutions to testing

Ever wonder why a message or campaign just doesn't get the results from people you expect. Did you ask clients, readers, users for their input along the way? The most important aspect of the plain language process is testing the message with your readers or users. Yes, asking them what they think, feel, want.

However, both the process and resources—human, time and money—often mean organizations drop this stage. But, it delivers a brilliant return on your investment. Imagine if one concept, word or phrase was turning away clients, decreasing sales and taking up staff time answering the same questions over and over.

Here are five easy options for testing.

Find out more about the Academy's
Course 5: Testing and Evaluating

1. Listen and learn

Listen carefully to the words your readers use when they describe your products or services. You will learn a lot about using 'their language' to gain understanding and really connect.

2. Everyone is a salesperson: let them sell

Get clients to explain o another person (even yourself), in their own words, what you offer. You can pick up some great clues as to how well your message matches your client's interpretation. And, you get an inside look at how people talk about you.

3. Use the simple Plus or Minus Checklist

Give a group of testers a section of your marketing materials, web content or product description. Then ask them to simply read through it and put a plus sign (+) beside info they like and understand and a minus sign (–) if they don't understand, like or get it. Now you know where to focus.

4. Get website users to perform a task

Watch how people get from the home page to the task page. How long it takes them? Which problems did they encounter? You will get great insights into how they navigate, what's important to them, and if your content and design are delivering the results you want and they need.

5. Start by asking clients what they really want

If you haven't done a client survey, focus group, or product test recently, now is the time to simply ask some key questions. What do you want from us? What are we doing that you like? What could we do better?

Your clients hold the key to your success. You ignore them at your peril. And, if you really want to create clear or plain language materials to connect with clients, you need to involve them along the way.

Here are some helpful sites

ProsWrite—A simple way to test your reader's response
UserResearch.gov.uk—Tips for testing your words

Academy Course Calendar

Four ways to document project decisions

5/30/2017

By Cheryl Stephens

Plain language projects, like any others, can be enhanced by clear documentation. Plain Language Academy program advisor and facilitator Cheryl Stephens shares four ways to track your project progress, for current and future needs. Thanks Cheryl.

For a freelance writer-editor, many jobs are short-run, although there may be repeat assignments with the same client. Early in your career, one tends to think of some jobs as quick and easy to do, so the engagement is not fully documented. In situations when you are working with a team member, you may not view it as your job because there is someone else who is supposed to do it.

Just remember, it is your career and your reputation at stake.

Create a case study
After a two-year project, I was asked to write an article about the project. It was then I wished I had made notes along the way and treated the writing project like a case study. In another instance, deemed an emergency by the client, I finished a short, written piece in one day. Later, there were many occasions when I wanted to use this piece as an example, but could not recall the details.

Use checklists
Many of us use checklists to make sure we cover off all the standard issues—in a written piece or an entire project. Checklists are good, but even better if you annotate them with some detail.

Write Interim report or memo to file
For project needs, an interim report is sent to the client or team, to bring everyone up to date on the status of the work-in-progress. A memo to file is used, but not circulated, to record some difficulty or reason to change the project's direction. Sometimes the memo to file is not kept in the project file, but in your own folder. A CMA (cover my ass) folder keeps information available, if you should ever need to CMA.

Track with originating documents
Of course you should always have a contract that sets out the expectations for each person involved, but sometimes an editing or writing project is started less formally. Then, the first memo should set out those parameters and it should be sent to the client. You can refer to it when things start to go sideways. Sometimes, veering sideways is unavoidable due to external developments, and you should record those changes and new decisions in a memo to file.

Learn more in Academy courses
You can get the full complement of skills needed for plain language project management by taking our six-course Foundation Program, or selecting Course 6: Plain Language Project, or its options (adding on coaching and consulting services). Registration is open. Visit Calendar for start dates.

Three benefits of clear online content

5/8/2017

One great aspect of online communication, whether email, social media or website content, is its immediacy. At least when sending. But, as we all have personal experience with information overload, how do we ensure our messages get noticed, get read, and get the reaction we want? Here's a guide for you to follow.

3-point benefit checklist

Benefits are primarily for your readers. With emails and online content you want to ensure your audience can:

easily understand
efficiently navigate
effectively act on

the information you've sent. If they understand and act, you benefit.

Ask your readers, or a test group, if they 'understand' your message or content. Ask a question based on the content to see if they 'understand' it the same way you do. Listen to your group explain what it means to them. Watch how they move through your information. Measure the results. The rewards are worth it.

3 ways to stand out from the crowd

Or, should I say overcrowding. I haven't heard anyone complain lately that they didn't have enough emails, are just surfing for fun, or their to-do list is empty. Plain language, or clear content and design, can make you stand out from the crowd.

Write a strong, interesting catchy headline, title or email subject line is critical. Help lead your reader through the content. That's our job.
Include only what your reader needs to know. Your readers will thank you for this. Stick to one subject, request or action. Keep it simple.
Be conversational. We all like to feel part of what's going on.

Applying these three plain language practices can get you the reputation of being easy to deal with, and improve your connections. 'Another benefit.

Example:
Real email subject line: Status of your website
Plain language revision: We can help you get more site traffic

3 things to do when signing off emails

Emails are still the biggest form of communication. How do you sign off your emails? It's an important part for you and your reader. It leads (hopefully) to the next action, purchase, meet-up. However, many of us stumble here. These are three recommended closings (and three not recommended) from Grammarly.com.

Best wishes, Cheers (my favourite) and Thanks in Advance (very positive results) all work very well, when matched to the situation.

Not recommended: Thx, Looking forward to hearing from you (passive aggressive), nothing or just your initials. Plain language is about conciseness, but not at the expense of connecting.

Being clear is what will make you stand out. Take the time to check that your online communication and content meets the three E guidelines, connects with your readers and gets the action you want. It's all about clarity and conciseness.

Check out four.sentenc.es. They offer a nice signature tag for your 'four-sentence email' as a reminder and to encourage others! I love it. Use it! And, I challenge you!

Face-to-face
Don't forget good, old face-to-face, even if it's a Skype call, Google Hangout, or Face Time. According to this Harvard Business Review research, "you need to ask six people in person to equal the power of a 200-recipient email".

If plain language or clear communication is new to you or your job, or you want to enhance your skills, check out our Plain Language Academy courses. Plain Language Basics and Plain Language Writing and Editing start at the beginning of each month (except Aug and Dec—we are on holiday).

Link to PlainLanguageAcademy calendar.
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Cheers for reading this blog.

Kate

Persuading plain language skeptics

3/9/2017

Bigstock images

Peers share top strategies for selling benefits

Despite the many successes I have experienced and positive stories from my colleagues, we are still challenged by those who don't understand the benefits of plain language. After many years in the field, sketicism is still a topic peers want to talk about and seek a solution to. A recent PlainLanguageAcademy.com Google Hangout focused on how to successfully sell plain language services to skeptics. Hosted by Cathy McPhalen, thINK Editing Inc., Edmonton, the group of peers shared their experiences and expertise on ways to convert clients to this new (to some) way of connecting with audiences, by simply being clear. The discussion was lively as options were explored.

"What is plain language?" "Isn't that dumbing it down?" "I don't want to lose my professional voice. That's what I'm paid for." "We've always done it this way. If it's not broke, don't fix it." Whether you are new to plain language or have been providing clear writing, editing, design and training services for some time, these protests may sound familiar. So, as a profession, what can we do to persuade skeptics clear communication is worth the investment? Here we share three proven approaches highlighted during the Hangout.

1. Educate your clients
It has never been more apparent that lack of education, or understanding, can lead to sad social, political, organizational and cultural situations. Integrating a training or orientation session into your plain language proposal or project is important to get organizational support. You may have to do it to get a project started. Integrate it and get help from a plain language trainer if you need one. But, expect positive results.

2. Health check on current practices
We are all somewhat resistant to change. It takes time, resources and commitment. Your client, internal or external, may say making all these changes will meet resistance and cost money. Here is a great way to turn this around.

Get permission to ask some questions to help you understand their situation. Here's what our NZ colleagues at ReWrite–How to overcome daily sabotage of your brand and profit have to say about discovering what is really going on. Find out how long it takes to produce an email, a brochure, web updates or reports. How many people are involved? How many versions? Now, do a calculation: time it took x salaries = cost. Scary? Plain language can be the solution. The upfront investment in training can generate savings at many levels for the long run.

3. Words that work
We are plain language professionals all helping our clients use words more effectively. Are we doing our best? What words could we use to better explain—and sell—the benefits of plain language? Do you find yourself using negative terms like 'problems', 'challenges', 'issues'? The Hangout peers put their heads together to come up with words that positively promote plain language. What do you think?

'clear' instead of 'plain' language
increasing simplicity
improving accessibility and usability
creating satisfied customers
standing out from the crowd
enhancing efficiency
reducing time

Every organization wants all of these achievements and to enjoy their rewards. We can help them be successful!

For every problem there is a solution. And, the best way to find it is with the power of peers. If you have ideas or stories on success in persuading skeptics, please post a comment or share on social media using #plainlanguage or #plainlanguageacademy.

If you want to join or lead future PlainLanguageAcademy.com Hangouts, send your contact details and ideas to Kate at register@plainlanguageacademy.com.

Check out Academy Course 1: Plain Language Basics, designed to increase your understanding of plain language. It can help increase your options for persuading others. The course is open to registration throughout the year.