Reduce the number of documents, shorten and clarify frequently-used documents, ask for feedback on readability, provide graphics to clarify processes, and establish a task force to improve official language. These are the most important recommendations in the action plan that the plain-language working group delivered to the Minister of Education on Thursday. When I was reading the following lines, my mind flashed a picture of a ministry fox guarding the clear-language hen-house: “These general measures, which are concerned with every aspect of public administration, have the potential to affect how documents are created, with the result that clear and precise official language is more easily produced.” Equally thought-provoking was the follow-up survey related to the Administrative Law’s language section, which has been in effect for 10 years. Of more than 150 government respondents, two-thirds thought that the law had failed to improve documents in the public sector. But how could improvement could be achieved? Should we now try agile methods instead of bureaucratic planning? According to the action plan, customers are often satisfied with communication they receive in person or over the phone, but they’re unhappy with written documents. Agencies can reap the benefits of more conversational communication via social media as well: even discussions of difficult issues will bring out everyday language. Effective official language cannot be picked up from guidebooks; it is created together with users.