The European Commission (EC) held a conference ‘Clear Writing and Better Regulation’ on 17 November 2009 in Brussels. It seems that the EC now considers that it needs to issue guidelines on clear writing to its staff. Apparently, some of the problems that contribute to the difficulty in communicating to EU citizens include:
- officials writing in their second or third languages
- the technical and legal complexity of the information
- the lack of awareness about translation issues
- there is no culture of quality control
Technical writers, particularly those in Europe, will be familiar with these problems and most of us work constantly to overcome the difficulties to produce clear documentation for diverse audiences. Perhaps the EC, for example, doesn’t have a style guide – or is it that no one uses it?
I welcome the EC’s initiative to improve its communications but here’s the catch. This initiative to produce guidelines on clear writing is an internal action. The people who caused the problems are now supposed to find the solutions? Writing clear information is a skill that few people possess. ‘Anyone can write’ is not enough!
We, the technical communications community, have a lot to do to promote our industry and expertise so that institutions like the EC turn to us for assistance.
A report about this conference is on the EurActiv website: http://www.euractiv.com/en/pa/eu-officials-offered-hotline-clear-writing/article-187434
