Under new law, feds must stop writing gibberish

[The Straight Story]

Under new law, feds must stop writing gibberish

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is rolling out a new official language of sorts: plain English.

That's right: Pursuant to regulations promulgated thereunder and commencing in accordance with a statute signed herein by President Barack Obama, the government shall be precluded from writing the pompous gibberish heretofore evidenced, to the extent practicable.

That sentence contains 11 new language no-nos.

Obama signed the Plain Writing Act last fall after decades of effort by a cadre of passionate grammarians in the civil service to jettison the jargon.

It takes full effect in October, when federal agencies must start writing plainly in all new or substantially revised documents produced for the public. The government will still be allowed to write nonsensically to itself.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110523/GJLIFESTYLES/110529920/-1/SANNEWS

[damntexdem]

1. I thought the government had a gibberish-only law.

Why is it now embracing a foreign language: clear, plain English?

;-)

[Recursion]

5. In fairness, a lot of jargon is used for precision

At the expense of accessibility. I did tech manuals for Navy boats for a while, and you need to write in a way that's impenetrable to laypeople because you're writing for a mechanic who's in a hurry (and probably reading by the light a flashlight held in his mouth).

But, yeah, public affairs stuff should be written more plainly.

[pinboy3niner]

2. I guess they'll all have to take ESL classes :)

[NYC Liberal]

3. For some reason this seemed like an Onion article.

Not that it's a bad idea, it just seemed odd that they would actually do this!

[Recursion]

4. They tried this in the 90s too

I had a job right out of college doing SMOG analysis for government writing. If it plays out like last time, over the next few years every department will eventually get a waiver.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. But..but..what will the bosses do to amuse themselves??

And, how will they impress each other and drive the underlings crazy delving through all the prolix jargon, double-talk, and self-promotion?

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. And how they will hide the truth from the casual onlooker?

Most of the gibberish is to confuse the public from prying too closely and finding out things.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Which makes one wonder why they're so worried about Manning and Wikileaks.

Who needs "secret" codes when the average bureaucrat can churn out class A gibberish unintelligible to almost everyone but themselves? Not to mention the "misspoke", "regret", and "my secretary screwed up".

[HopeHoops]

7. Does that mean Republicans in Congress can't write anymore bills?

[Boojatta]

8. I'm not a fed.

[The Straight Story]

9. Well then - you can continue writing gibberish

;)

[pinboy3niner]

11. !

:spray:

:rofl:

:toast: