Management

Bill requires plain language in federal documents

The President has signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010. Alan Siegel joined the DorobekINSIDER to explain why it\'s so difficult for feds to use plain language a...

Federal News Network Staff

October 14, 2010 6:50 pm

< a min read

wfedstaff | June 3, 2015 3:29 pm

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You’ve all heard it before and maybe you are even victim to it — the dreaded Fed Speak. This is language the government uses that is often difficult to understand and overly complex.

The President has signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010, requiring agencies to write documents in simple, easy-to-understand language.

So what will this mean for agencies?

Alan Siegel, chairman of Siegel and Gale and a founder of the Plain Language movement, joined the DorobekINSIDER to explain why it’s so difficult for feds to use plain language and how to simplify the language in documents.

Siegel is has spent decades trying to bring clarity to complex government documents.