This paper discusses the 'fuzziness' of Hungarian legal language as an issue of language planning addressed in the Hungarian language strategy to be published by the Hungarian Research Centre for Language Planning. First, we give a concise historical overview on the status of Hungarian language in Hungary, only to make it evident how its status…

The Compassionate Communications project at the University of Exeter is changing the way in which student-facing staff across the institution communicate with our student body. At the heart of this work is a focus on ensuring we as a university are inclusive, accessible, and supportive in the way in which we provide information to our increasingly…

Families of students with disabilities experience additional responsibilities associated with learning about and accessing information related to early intervention/special education systems. Likewise, families also require multifaceted communication approaches if genuine access is to be achieved. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to…

Writing in plain language aims to help users find what they need and ensures that the information is both useful and understandable. This is key for distance students whose primary library interaction may be with the library Website. A mix of user research and readability scores can be used to measure whether content is findable, useful, and…

The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) pushes states to improve the public accessibility of Career Technical Education (CTE) data. According to the law, state agencies, as well as local recipients, must share data on the performance of all CTE students, and subgroups of learners, and make this…

A unique aspect of special education is the mandate for parent involvement. The Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1990 (IDEA) and its reauthorization in 2004 require professionals to involve parents of students with disabilities in the educational decision-making process. This article seeks to clarify reasons why materials produced through the…

In response to current federal mandates requiring selected businesses and government agencies to use plain language (PL) when reporting information to the public, this article advocates the introduction of PL principles into current business communication curricula. Despite recent PL mandates and advances, many current business textbooks and…

Plain language involves more than just a few simple techniques, such as using everyday words, short sentences, and active voice. Although there is no single definition, "plain language" basically stands for several dozen well-established principles of clear communication. In this article, the author discusses the significance of plain language…

Gives a case history of how one writing group devised a way to deal with the problem of author-created noun strings and long, indecipherable unit modifiers, satisfying both internal and external clients. Describes the development of an in-house usage guide. (PRA)

Noting that medical consent forms traditionally have been so full of medical and legal jargon that they have been impossible for even the educated layperson to understand, this paper presents a model for revising medical consent forms to make them more comprehensible. After describing the model, the paper explains each step involved in using it,…