Plain treatment of difficult topics

When reading reports about the outbreak of ebola in Africa, I came across the NPR blog Goats and Soda. I was struck by the plain language used in many of the posts on this blog.

Most of the writers seem to consistently  use plain language techniques to talk about their 'Stories of life in a changing world'.

These stories make excellent reading. They're highly informative, but not overly complex. They explain difficult concepts and technical terms, and gently guide the reader through the topic. They mostly use short, straightforward sentences. This reader-friendly writing style helps to make the information easy to absorb and remember.

See what you think about this sample post. It reports on an interview with David Quammen, who recently wrote Spillover, a book about the science, history, and human impact of emerging diseases.
Read 'A Dress Rehearsal For The Next Big One'

Why is the blog named Goats and Soda?

Two New Zealander experts report from the 2013 PLAIN Conference

Two plain English practitioners from Wellington attended October's PLAIN 2013 Conference in Vancouver.

Case studies compared Canada's environment with a New Zealand KiwiSaver project 

 Anne-Marie Chisnall, describes the presentation about plain English in the field of finance.

‘On the second day of the conference, I spoke in a joint session with Michelle Black of Simply Read, a consultancy firm based in Canada. Michelle does a lot of work in the areas of financial, health, and legal information. So our talks were complementary.

Anne-Marie says, 'Michelle set the scene for the Canadian financial environment and I came in with a case study about KiwiSaver investment statements in New Zealand.

'The session participants were interested in the similar initiatives in financial literacy in the two countries. And in how to achieve a plain document when working with many interested parties — especially legal reviewers who often tend to want to reverse plain language changes.’

The conference's inspiration is available online

And Lynda Harris, Anne-Marie’s colleague, said the conference was ‘inspiring and brim-full of information’.

‘Karen Schriver's fantastic session on evidence-based plain language, Mark Hochhauser's research on how readers think and understand, and Deborah Bosley's case studies linking research and better business, were just some of the many highlights.’

Most of the conference presentations will soon be posted on the PLAIN 2013 website so keep an eye out for them. Lynda says  that the plenary sessions were videoed. ‘They’ll be great watching.’

Visit the website of the 2013 PLAIN Conference