Simple English?

[johnriley1uk]

One of the most irritating things about being John The Redundant has to be the apalling standard of English in the letters that arrive from various government departments.

They are short sentences. They try to be simple. They make no sense.

Well OK they do say what they need to say, but as far as English goes they are dreadful. I detest the staccato style, although I do understand that they are trying to use simple language that everyone can understand.

Some forms are even worse because they try to be simple and phrase some questions in a way that really challenges the normal logic of the language.

I think it would be better to teach people how to read and write. Perhaps we should also teach some of them how to speak.

[mr_e]

The letters we send are similar, but given the age group we deal with I'd much rather they went with that approach. The working-age letters could be going out to all sorts of people, possibly those with learning difficulties, mental illnesses, or simply lacking in basic literacy skills.

I know what you mean about the staccato style though: it doesn't scan too well. We've been told before now that it's a really difficult job, writing those letter templates, what with the space constraints and all that (succint = less printing costs). I was highly sceptical about that claim.

The forms are occasionally a bit weird, but most of ours seem okay... I'm possibly just too used to them though. I'll keep an eye out for illogical bits next Monday and report back!

[Mike]

I know of something similar in Architectural Contracts. There is a Home Owners contract that has the 'Crystal Clear' mark which is supposed to ensure that the contract is made in simple English for lay people such as home owners and small contractors to understand. I have never read the contract as I prefer to stick with the complex, hard to understand versions!

[mr_e]

I'm sure lawyers prefer the hard to understand versions as well. All the government forms tend to have the "crystal mark", so maybe it's been taken too far in places and some forms / letters have been over-simplified?

Not managed to spot any crazy errors in ours yet, just the usual unusual turns of phrase.