The multi-layered nature of literacy continues to surprise me when I explore texts. When I reread, I’m often amazed by meanings I’ve overlooked—and I think of myself as a close reader. Interpreting text can be like peeling an onion or opening those Russian dolls. International comparisons (pdf) show Finns overall have excellent reading skills, so we’re not inclined to doubt our skill at comprehension. Yet a third of us fall into lower levels of literacy even while believing we are good readers. The toughest texts to interpret are those employing irony and sarcasm. We’ve seen evidence of this in recent debate about education cuts, with student demonstrators carrying a banner that read, “Shove innovation up your ass.” I interpreted this as sarcasm, but many who saw the banner did not.

I read Teija Salomaa‘s thesis about the readability of documentation. This thesis, from the field of translation studies, is from 2004, so it is unfortunately not available on the Internet. Salomaa sought to find out how different people read instructions and how they make use of them. The subjects of the study believe that good instructions proceed in a logical order and correspond to the way people use the equipment or process. Other important features are brevity and consistent terminology. The subjects found multilingual instructions troublesome when the Finnish version is buried among the other languages. On the basis of usability testing, the best instructions are generated through an iterative documentation process and developed in collaboration with the target audience. When composing instructions, it is good to keep in mind that subjects do not usually read the entire text; rather, they will pick up individual sections here and there to solve the problems they’re facing. It’s critical that instructions are searchable and easily scanned. For example, in a task regarding a sphygmomanometer, one subject simply started operating the device and turned to the instructions only when problems arose – this way he succeeded in completing the task more quickly than others.

I happened to see that last weekend in Riihimäki there was an event called ”Shopping 2015” – with the English word “shopping”. It is astounding how often English appears in Finnish marketing like this. That doesn’t happen with German, for example, even though we have many more tourists speaking German than English.

What’s the reason for this English-usage hype? Will a thoroughly Finnish summer happening turn into an international event if it’s called “Pipefest” or “Summer Up?” This year in the Finnish spruce forest they’re planning a “Pre-Heat Party” on the “Loop Stage,” and at the same time in Lahti, the “Urban Chill Out” region will host an “Adult Action Park”, which sounds pornographic.

I keep wondering who might be the target for this Finnish-English marketing melange. I’m told the English appeals to young people. So I’m testing that theory: I’m asking people under 25 which ad copy appeals to them more, the plain Finnish version or the mixed one. I will use a couple of examples: “SuomiAreena goes Kirjamessut” and “Ale by Isku” and their Finnish equivalents. (In that last one, “ale” is Finnish for “sale.”) If a majority of actual young people favors the mixed option, I will stop complaining.

I’ll report the results in a few weeks. Meanwhile, the Word of the Week is going on holiday and will return at the beginning of August. Sunny summer days to all language lovers!

At the Finnish Consulting Group Forum last week, the Language Police presented the Top Ten List for bureaucratic jargon, and attendees chose the most outstanding example. This year, we were especially interested in nominations for complicated organizational names and lumbering titles. Among the striking examples were documents related to projects for the European Union. In fact, two of those made it to the final round. Not that surprising, since for bodies like the EU, ERDF, and ESF, applications for project funding are submitted through the project funding application. In a similar vein, wordy exactitude triumphed over clarity in an explanation that the Ella Project is a part of the Kasperi II Project / the developmental project for Mid-Finland’s families with children. That slash is particularly outstanding.

Among the main features of the finalists are repetition, awkward names, difficult abbreviations, and long strings of adjectives. They also show a lack of vocabulary, demonstrated by the overuse of words like development and activity. The winning entry was the introduction to projects undertaken by Suupohja’s Municipal Federation for Basic Services and Public Utilities, whose very name deserves an award; the introduction includes not only names and acronyms for participating jurisdictions but the full names of projects. Who would not want to read The Final Report of the Selevä Paletti Development Project, a Component of the KASPER Project, Part of the Central Finland Children, Youth and Families KASTE Suite?

My thanks to everyone who submitted a nominee and to the forum participants who selected the winner. As always, the real winner will be the ongoing campaign against jargon-laden bureaucratic writing. Long live clear language!

The newest Lööppi & Skuuppi magazine has an interview with researcher Maria Lassila-Merisalo, where she gives strict advice to writers of online articles. Her instructions caused a tempest in Twitter’s teacup, because they greatly differed from accepted views. The researcher considers links, as well as the option to comment, useless, because links will expire and comments require moderation. However, her most surprising opinion was her disdain for subheads: “Subheadings are not worth including, although they are still recommended by some sources. Surprisingly, according to surveys, people don’t even read them.” This advice runs contrary to, for example, Jakob Nielsen’s usability studies, and I have neither found for myself nor read in the interview any convincing evidence to support her claim. Further, Lassila-Merialo’s guidelines are based on a specific online format: a long narrative article which is intended to be read from start to finish. However, most online texts are meant for information search and therefore benefit from subheadings which speed up skimming. Thus, in my teaching, I will continue to emphasize their crucial contribution to online usability, at least until better arguments appear.

My week in Japan gave me a taste of what it would be like to live as an illiterate in a foreign country. You don’t understand directions or guidelines, and even in tourist spots, service personnel seem to vanish after noticing a foreign customer. On the other hand, the nonverbal communication was extremely polite; even train conductors turned twice to bow before exiting the carriage. In the Japan Times, I read that the Japanese language expresses respect and courtesy in many ways: through inflection, word choice, and sentence structures. For example, status and relationship affect verb selection, and the extremely formal keigo business language has a wide range of phrases to exalt others and humble yourself. Both Finnish and English have borrowed many words from Japanese: aikido, bonsai, emoji, futon, judo, haiku, karaoke, karate, kimono, manga, origami, rickshaw, sake, satsuma, shiitake, sudoku, sumo, sushi, tsunami. However, a tourist-san won’t get far in everyday situations with only this vocabulary.

The approach of summer brings warmer weather, longer days, and the 2015 edition of the Jargon Contest. This year, we’re especially interested in bloated or baffling names for departments or agencies, though you can also submit an outstandingly bad sentence or short passage from a governmental or private-sector source. From the nominees, we’ll select three finalists, and on June 4th, at the Finnish Consulting Group’s annual forum, participants will vote on the winner. If your nomination becomes a finalist, you’ll earn bragging rights as well as a copy (in Finnish) of The Top 10 List from the Language Police. Because the real goal of the Jargon Contest is to encourage clear writing and not to ridicule, we won’t publish the name of the original author, and you can remain anonymous if you wish. Do your part to discourage officious, obtuse, or onerous writing: send your nomination via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail at info@yksityinenkielitoimisto.net. The deadline is May 30th.

What does a social media campaign look like on Twitter? The formula consists of three phases. Coming soon: A fabulous event. Today: We’re having a fabulous event (with selfies). Tomorrow: We had a fabulous event yesterday. I would prefer to make my own conclusions about how fabulous the event is, based on the content of messages and not on their number. Three similar phases apply to the Twitter campaigns of political candidates: Vote for Maija Meikäläinen. Retweets of “I’m voting for Meikäläinen” messages, with selfies. Post-election, a thank you from @VoteForMaija, after which the account falls silent. Is this bad? Not if between the three phases the candidate shares other content and conversations. However, if the stream is mere self-marketing, silence would be a less embarrassing alternative. A candidate does not need a separate Twitter campaign if she truly participates in social media between elections—her actions and views are open to continuous assessment. In fact, if support for the candidate comes mainly from party hacks tweeting “Maija is doing great,” it’s not a social media campaign; it’s just spam.

Last Saturday at Oulu University, Maija Saviniemi defended her dissertation entitled ”It’s Embarrassing if the Professionals Make Clumsy Grammar Mistakes”. The dissertation deals with the knowledge and practices of editorial staff concerning language planning, which is the deliberate effort to influence how language is used. Her research material is based on 232 responses to a questionnaire sent to Finnish newspapers and the Finnish Broadcasting Company. In newsrooms, major problems with usage often involve compounds and commas, and the most widely used language aid is the spelling checker. Local dialects and colloquialisms are acceptable in interviews and direct quotations, but for reporting the news, journalists stick to standard language. The attitude of the respondents is positive: 97 percent consider language planning important. Good language is necessary for quality writing and for successful interaction with readers. And speaking of language planning, when Saviniemi’s questionnaire asked how often respondents turned to language aids—often, fairly often, not often, and rarely—they asked what “often” meant.

I recently read three completely different social media guides in a row. While I did, I thought about how difficult it is to take an unconditional attitude towards guides in your own field. You’re constantly tempted to comment and criticize. So I decided to educate myself by picking up only positive things from the books.

The Twitter Book, by Tuomas Enbuske and Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb, with its laid-back, magazine-style voice, encourages readers to start tweeting. In my opinion, they have the right focus; Twitter frees public discussion from gatekeepers. “Freedom is more essential than ‘quality’ dictated from the top.”

Harto Pönkä’s Social Media Handbook emphasizes that social media is about connecting people, groups, and networks. Networking is more efficient on Twitter than on Facebook or LinkedIn, because of the potential to create one-way connections. Another key point is that the communal nature of networks depends on activity and duration—not the platform but the interaction.

Pekka Sauri, the deputy mayor of Helsinki, is the author of Public Administration and Social Media, which examines the topic from the point of view of city administration. The city’s central task, according to Sauri, is to combine the various interests of its inhabitants. Social media can consolidate urban intelligence into superbrains that can solve any problem. Participation succeeds only if the public administration is transparent, and it is made transparent through communication and interaction. Social media is a great tool for this, but officials must have the courage to change themselves from faceless authorities to human beings.

All three social media guides are available as electronic books. Reading them made me consider whether this format is making books a bit lighter and shorter. On the screen, it is in fact easy to skim through a hundred-page publication written with a newspaper-like style.