Frequently asked questions disscussion

​​[Q] What is plain language?

[A] Plain language is the way to present information —both textually and visually— in an accessible and understandable manner for specified audiences.

An example of how to employ plain language to simplify a government guidelines:

(Links to an external site.)

Original text that is lengthly and required focusing to obtain information:

Infants and children who drink water containing lead in excess of the action level could experience delays in their physical or mental development. Children could show slight deficits in attention span and learning abilities. Adults who drink this water over many years could develop kidney problems or high blood pressure.

Use plain language to get straight to the point in an organized manner:

Lead in drinking water can make you sick. Here are some possible health effects of high lead levels in your drinking water:

Children:

· Delayed growth

· Learning disabilities

· Short attention span

Adults:

· Kidney problems

· High blood pressure

[Q] What do you understand social justice to be, from your reading of this article? Cite what consolidates this term for you.

[A] In this article, social justice can be understood as a process to build documents with human-centered design approach to deliver information in an ethical manner, avoid using bureaucratic, unfamiliar language for a specified audience (Willerton 2015). For example, a document advocates for human rights can only do justice if that document communicate to its audience what their rights are in their own plain language. If the document had unfamiliar language to describes what audience's rights are, the document fails to create social justice.

Citations: Willerton, R., Plain Language and Ethical Action: A Dialogic Approach to Technical Content in the 21st Century, New York, NY, USA:Routledge, 2015.

[Q] Explain (from the reading) how and why the plain language movement needs to adopt a social-justice approach.

[A] The plain language movement needs to adopt a social-justice approach because this approach allows plain language to deliver documents effectively to the targeted audience in an ethical manner. To adopt the social-justice approach, plain language should adopt a human-centered design approach where audience's familiar language should be used as backbone for plain language.

[Q] How is plain language (PL) understood traditionally? Provide some examples noted throughout the article.

[A] Traditionally, plain language was considered as a way to help audiences better access and understand technical, civic, legal, and scientific discourse. An example, in Disclosure Statement 11, reader of document was first referred as potential borrower, then toward the end of the document, the reader is positioned as an actual borrower.

[Q] How can language impact how people engage and participate in particular activities? What examples can you provide that aren't mentioned in the text? Perhaps examples from your own lived life (for example, I skip over the fine print on credit card statements because i..)

[A] If people can't understand a particular document that describe the activity, they will be discouraged from participate in it fully. For example, when I post information about a trip for my Kayak club, I often make sure that the information was communicated clearly in plain language without ambiguity of when it will happens, and how to sign up, so no one is left behind just because they don't have experience in the subject matter.

[Q] What is CDA, and what considerations does it offer plain language? Use their case to ground your response.

[A] CDA is a research method that deal primarily with the discourse dimensions of power abuse and the injustice and inequality that result from it. CDA can reveal the ways that language can structure or disrupt ideologies and societal “norms” and standards.

Comments:

Research approach: I like how they paired critical discourse analysis (CDA) with the Securities and Exchange Commission's Plain English Handbook guidelines for disclosure statements to analyze three disclosure statements. This will allow them to reveal the way that language can structure/disrupt societal norms.

Methodology: I like how authors examine the initial mortgage disclosure statements for ARMs. This is the first disclosure document that potential borrowers need to deal with.

The data and kinds of evidence that Critical Discourse Analysis uncovers: the research found a significant outcome where each disclosure emphasized or minimized different types of information, there was also variation in information that the document included or omitted.