No Dollars, No Sense
The Washington Post featured an article in their Style section today about the 2010 Plain Writing Act and how little it has been implemented. It was supposed to force government bureaucracies to write their regulations with the brand of English most commonly used to communicate. However:
With no penalty for inaction on the agencies' part, advocates worry that plain writing has fallen to the bottom of the to-do list, like many another unfunded mandate imposed by Congress...What's more, the law's demand for clearer language seems like make-work to skeptics who say there is no money to pay for the promotion of clarity and that the status quo is the best path to accuracy.
The plain language coordinator at USAID said: "We're not getting very far with this. No one has the resources."
So, unless taxpayers empty their pockets for this cause, it is impossible for government employees to write like ordinary people? I should have used this logic in Sophomore English class when I thought thesis paragraphs looked better at the end of a paper. If my teacher wanted to find out what my argument and three supporting ideas were right off the bat, it should have cost her.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
Maura,
I think we all need a little comic relief.
A guy at my synagogue was studying to be a Mashgiach, an overseer of Kosher food preparation. To gain this he had to take a written test and pay a fee by the State of Florida. I misheard that he was studying to be the Maschiach (what Christians believe JC to be) and that he was going to take the test and pay the fee.
I continue to enjoy the thought that the State of Florida would glam on to this Maschiach thing and try to make some money out of it.
Oh the mystical wonder of Government.
Regards,
Jim
Aug '10
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
I'd actually hope for better writing than ordinary people exhibit. But I'd take what I could get as an alternative to bureaucratese.
Edited on April 10, 2012 at 12:38amNov '11
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
Soon to be followed by the Common Courtesy Act, which will force government bureaucracies to treat citizens with the civility one would expect of ordinary people.
To be followed soon thereafter by the When Pigs Fly Act . . .
Aug '10
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
Heh. "Expect" is the key term here. Catch me on a bad day, and I would argue that the government is doing exactly that. But I am typically more optimistic about my fellow citizens.
Jun '10
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
Maura: Give a little love to the poor lawyers.
As an attorney, I spent at least twenty years fighting over what a federal agency (in my case, the FCC) meant in its regulations, which were supposed to clarify even more opaque statutory language. If they wrote statutes and regs in understandable language, we'd be selling pencils.
I say this tongue partially in cheek. I'm not sure they'll ever do this. First, the subject matter is often highly technical: technical subjects result in highly technical rules. Second, often the agency isn't even sure what it means, so you end us with vague rules. They have a deadline, so they issue rules that are incomprehensible and, more often than not, internally inconsistent. Third, there's an element of Gnosticism is the whole thing. Only the priesthood of agency and industry lawyers have the keys to the mysteries. Fourth, bureaucrats can write in only one language: bureaucratese.
It's all a great object lesson in the ultimate futility of the planned bureaucratic state. It simply doesn't work. I don't care how many "experts" you have, the market is still smarter than they are.
Edited on April 10, 2012 at 1:08amJan '11
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
And yet somehow they have plenty of money to translate and print everything in Spanish.
May '10
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
Tabula: have you run across VSEEMs at the FCC? Voluntary Self-Effectuating Enforcement Measures are the voluntary penalties that the RBOCs are supposed to pay to the CLECs when the OSSes and the UNE-Ps don't measure up. VSEEMs is my favorite thing to come out of the FCC. Note to all: Telecom is as bad as the government when it comes to unreadable writing.
Jul '11
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
I think you miss the purpose of this law. While it will not have enough funds for enforcement it will have enough money to form an oversight body staffed with politically connected appointees that will travel the world to study the problem and to put together a document that will be read by few and followed by even fewer. On the other hand some congressman will be able to rest easy knowing that his idiot son in law has a good job that should will keep him out of trouble and his daughter in jewelry.
Mar '12
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
James Gawron: Maura,
I think we all need a little comic relief.
A guy at my synagogue was studying to be a Mashgiach, an overseer of Kosher food preparation. To gain this he had to take a written test and pay a fee by the State of Florida. I misheard that he was studying to be the Maschiach (what Christians believe JC to be) and that he was going to take the test and pay the fee.
I continue to enjoy the thought that the State of Florida would glam on to this Maschiach thing and try to make some money out of it.
Oh the mystical wonder of Government.
Regards,
Jim · 2 hours ago
Frankly, running the Temple sacrifices requires knowledge of a set of bureaucratic regulations (Halakha) that make the tax code look like child's play. Anyone who's going to rebuild the Temple and reinstate worship there will need this knowledge. I can think of no better training for becoming Moshiach that a stint in civil service.
I jest, I jest.
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
James Gowron: to continue the Maschiach-political analogy, were the Lubavitcher followers of Rabbi Schneerson regarded as Ron Paulites, or birthers, or some other term that doesn't translate to politics? I've always wondered how that played out during his life.
Mar '12
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
After that, we can classify the Breslovers...
In seriousness, Lubabitch started out being a lot more outward facing than most Hasidic groups, but more mainstrem while the Rebbe lived. More liberal Orthodox tend to view Chabad as a bit weird because of the whole dead Rebbe thing; more conservative Hasidim view Chabad as odd for their regular willingness to engage with the outside world. There's something of a split now in Lubavitch between the crowd that are really committedly messianic and just waiting for the Rebbe to rise from the dead and the people who think while the Rebbe could have been the Messiah, he died without accomplishing his task and so we are still waiting and in the mean time should do religious acts to hasten his coming.
I just find Chabad odd because my intellectual outlook tends to be highly Litvak/misnaged; emotional religion makes me nervous.
Dec '10
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
For Mr. Lileks and Mr. Madcap,
Obviously you are not fully aware of the mysterious joys of say 'traffic court'. Here many congregate with their sacrificial offerings. Often they spend hours in meditation at the DMV.
Of course the State of Florida would license the Mashiach. They would insist on the proper permit for all miracles.
Regards,
Jim
Jun '10
Re: No Dollars, No Sense
Caroline: Now you're talking. I quit doing FCC stuff about four years ago so I've missed VSEEM, but I know all those other terms. Used to work for an RBOC (nearly 25 years). Fought with the vile CLECs over OSS (never good enough, they said) and UNE-P. Then there's the racy stuff like a "hot cut."
See what I mean about the Gnosticism of the about the regulatory state? Those of us, the elite, who learned the lingo got our paycheck every two weeks.
Edited on April 10, 2012 at 5:35pm