Plain language
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The plain language movement is a worldwide tendency favouring the use of clear, modern, unpretentious language carefully written to ease understanding. It is a reaction to the gobbledygook used by lawyers and others to impress or confuse rather than communicate. It distinguishes gobbledygook (example 1) from useful jargon employed as a shorthand among those who understand it (example 2).
Definitions
Here are some definitions of plain language:
- Clear and effective communication. (Professor Joseph Kimble)
- Generally speaking, the idiomatic and grammatical use of language that most effectively presents ideas to the reader. (Bryan Garner)
- Just ... clear, straightforward language, with the needs of the reader foremost in mind. (Michèle Asprey)
- The writing and setting out of essential information in a way that gives a co-operative, motivated person a good chance of understanding the document at first reading, and in the same sense that the writer meant it to be understood. (Martin Cutts)
- Clear, straightforward expression, using only as many words as are necessary. It is language that avoids obscurity, inflated vocabulary and convoluted construction. It is not baby talk, nor is it a simplified version of ... language. (Dr Robert Eagleson)
History
Before the 20th century, written English gradually became painfully ornate and overcomplicated. A typical sentence might contain a dozen or more clauses and sprawl over half a page.
The 20th century saw the rise of a general trend towards "plain language" or "plain English." One of the earliest examples of this was the publication of the famous American English style guide, The Elements of Style.
In the 1970s, the plain English movement finally penetrated American law and government. American law schools began requiring their students to take legal writing classes, in which they were encouraged to use plain English as much as possible and to avoid legal jargon except when absolutely necessary. Public outrage with the skyrocketing number of unreadable government forms led to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980.
Examples
Example 1 (involuntarily donated by an anonymous solicitor)
.. PROVIDED ALWAYS AND IT IS HEREBY AGREED AND DECLARED that the Lessor shall be entitled at its absolute discretion to vary the proportion of the Service Costs payable by the Lessee as defined in clause 1(n) in the event of rights being granted pursuant to the terms of paragraph 5 of the Fifth Schedule hereto Provided that such variation shall not result in the said Service Charge proportion being increased
Example 2 (from Lord Justice Scarman's judgment in Chase International Corporation v. Oliver (1978))
The plaintiff and the defendants are adjoining landowners. The plaintiff asserts that he has a right of way over the defendants’ land giving access from his land to the public highway. Without this access his land is in fact landlocked, but, for reasons which clearly appear from the narration of the facts already given by my Lords, the plaintiff cannot claim a right of way by necessity. The plaintiff has no grant. He has the benefit of no enforceable contract. He has no prescriptive right. His case has to be that the defendants are estopped by their conduct from denying him a right of access over their land to the public highway. If the plaintiff has any right, it is an equity arising out of the conduct and relationship of the parties. In such a case I think it is now well settled law that the court, having analysed and assessed the conduct and relationship of the parties, has to answer three questions. First, is there an equity established? Secondly, what is the extent of the equity, if one is established? And, thirdly, what is the relief appropriate to satisfy the equity?