Using a Plain Language Assessment Tool to Improve Business Communication  

Our company has been involved in a joint public/private sector initiative to bring the benefits of plain language campaigns to business communication. For the project we developed a plain language assessment tool that identifies problem documents, estimates costs associated with poor documents, analyzes their usability, profiles their authors and readers, and helps create action plans for improvement. Two organizations have run pilot projects with the assessment tool, and we did follow up research on them and on some organizations that were exposed to the tool in a workshop setting. The tool is an effective vehicle for improving business documents and performance.

Mierau, Maurice. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment>Minimalism