Plain English Required

We have commented before about the language and complexity of the GNDP's Joint Core Strategy and Focussed Changes documentation and in an article in today's Eastern Daily Press, Norwich County Council are criticised for a letter written in "gobbleygook".

Marie Clair from the Plain English Campaign said "any public consultation is commendable as its main purpose is to include the views of people directly affected by any decisions". (Maybe she should have said that its supposed  main purpose is to include the views... as it seems that many such consultations are there just to tick a box to say that the public have been consulted regardless of how easy it was for the public to understand the accompanying documentation!)

Marie Clair goes on " but when the jargon of officialdom or technical terminology escapes into public information, it creates the opposite effect, and results in misunderstanding and suspicion.

It prevents the individual from making a fair and informed choice.

Every person has a responsibility to communicate clearly, but it is the responsibility of the 'experts' to make sure they provide technical information in a language that can be understood by all the intended audience."

We have noted before that the Greater Norwich Development Partnership is not a member of the Plain English Campaign and they have clearly failed in their responsibility to ensure that their consultation documentation is understandable to all their intended audience. Please note Ms Clair's comment that misunderstanding and suspicion are the result of such gobbledygook.

1 comment:

  1. The phrase "blinded by science" seems to fit the bill here and as the "science "often appears to be badly flawed,it makes it doubly difficult to get your head round.I regard myself as reasonably intelligent but find the sort of jargon speak used very confusing. Us mere mortals are not able to penetrate this sort of "smokescreen" and its high time our "betters"
    stopped talking down to us and used language we can understand

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