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You are here: Home / In English / The word of the week is the task force to fight officialese.

The word of the week is the task force to fight officialese.

9.9.2013

The Ministry of Education has set up a task force to promote the use of plain language in government writing. One of their first acts was to solicit feedback about official communications. In my feedback I drew attention to communications training in the public sector as well as the use of social media. Training in plain language needs to reach the experts, not only those who produce the final documents. In the public sector, we need to increase awareness about language and its meaning: basic skills of composition are not enough when writing is the core of the work. Also, training methods should be adapted to highly-educated busy professionals. Social media, in turn, brings an important new element to public sector: interaction. Direct conversational communication teaches people how to simplify complex issues; this has been the case at the Finnish tax agency and at Kela, which effectively guides people via online discussion forums. Everyday speech closes the language gap between public officials and citizens.

Filed Under: In English, Word of the Week

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