Different frameworks inevitably reflect the emphasis placed on different aspects of communication. ISO 24495-1:2023 organizes its guidance around four governing principles—relevant, findable, understandable, and usable—with “understandable” encompassing a wide range of linguistic and structural considerations, from wording to tone to cohesion. This structure serves the purpose of the standard, which is to provide a broad, outcome-based framework for authors across contexts. My plain language framework differs from  ISO 24495-1:2023 because it expands the four principles into five, grouped in my trademarked RAISE™ framework, which includes Relevance, Access, Intelligibility, Suitability, and Efficacy.

Unpacking “Understandable” in a Plain Language Framework

In my own practice, I have found it helpful to unpack “understandable” into the two distinct dimensions of Intelligibility and Suitability. I separate these not to diverge from the standard but to make explicit two linguistic aspects that require different kinds of decisions from authors—and which, while not discrete or sequential, can build on each other. So, RAISE™ offers a practical way to operationalize two linguistic dimensions at the heart of clear communication: how meaning is structured and how expression fits the audience, making them more visible and actionable for writers.

Intelligibility refers to what linguists call textuality: the construction of meaning through grammaticality, cohesion, and coherence. While ISO includes cohesion as a guideline under the Understandable principle (5.3.8), coherence—how ideas hang together logically and conceptually—deserves equal visibility, if not more! Cohesion and coherence interact to create clarity of thought, and the challenges involved in maintaining them differ markedly from those involved in shaping tone or choosing vocabulary. Treating intelligibility as its own principle highlights the cognitive work of structuring ideas so readers can follow the logic without undue inference.

Suitability, by contrast, involves adequacy: aligning tone, register, and stylistic choices with the needs, expectations, and cultural context of the intended audience, and the media and channels of communication. ISO situates tone within Understandable (5.3.7) as part of projecting respect and inclusiveness, but, in practice, style involves a broader set of interpersonal and contextual decisions. These choices carry substantial weight in whether readers feel seen, respected, and invited into the text as valid interlocutors.

Separating intelligibility and suitability is thus a practical decision rooted in how writers think and work. Authors routinely struggle with structure and idea-flow on the one hand, and with tone, voice, and audience fit on the other. When these are treated as one principle, the risk is that one dimension, often coherence, receives less attention than it needs for the text to succeed—especially in longer texts required for explanations and learning.

How Quadrants Support a Plain Language Framework

In the Visual Plain Language Guide (find the Guide here), I map written communication onto four quadrants defined by two intersecting dimensions: clarity of thought (cohesion + coherence) and adequacy of expression (tone, register, vocabulary). These dimensions generate four distinct types of text: clear technical communication, clear lay communication, poor technical writing, and poor non-technical or lay writing—what we often call gobbledygook.

This quadrant view makes one point especially visible: clear thinking is transferable. When the underlying ideas are coherent and well-sequenced, it becomes possible to create both a clear technical version and a clear lay version from the same conceptual core. Structure and logic remain stable; only the expression layer changes, as it were.

By contrast, when a document lands in the “poor” half of the chart—whether technical or lay—it usually signals problems in the idea layer, not just the wording. No amount of de-jargoning will fix incoherent content because the problem isn’t in the lexicon; it’s the absence of a rationale.

This quadrant model therefore underscores why I separate intelligibility from suitability in my five-principle framework. Cohesion and coherence give you the internal architecture that supports multiple versions for multiple audiences. Tone and register then allow you to adapt that architecture for readers with different backgrounds, needs, or levels of expertise. Clear thinking first; clear expression follows.

Why Clear Thinking Matters in a Plain Language Framework

In this framework, clarity of thought is essential for reader understanding and it also becomes a powerful tool when creating different versions of the same content for multiple audiences. When the underlying ideas are coherent (logically sequenced and structurally sound), it becomes much easier to adapt the message for audiences with different levels of expertise, cultural backgrounds, or communication needs. A well-formed conceptual architecture allows you to adjust vocabulary, tone, and examples without having to rebuild the message each time. In other words, textuality provides the stable “skeleton” of meaning, and adequacy lets you tailor the “surface” for each group. This separation of layers is particularly useful in multilingual contexts, regulated environments, and collaborative projects where stakeholders require variations of the same content. Starting with a clear, coherent core reduces duplication of effort and results in versions that remain aligned in purpose and substance while meeting readers where they are.

A Clearer Tool for Writers

Ultimately, I use five principles not to complicate the ISO model but to give authors a clearer diagnostic tool. Distinguishing clarity of thought (intelligibility) from kindness of expression (suitability) helps writers recognize which choices affect the logic of the message and which affect its relationship with readers. Both contribute to understanding, but they do so through different mechanisms. Making that distinction explicit supports better planning, drafting, and revising—while remaining fully compatible with the intent and scope of ISO 24495.

Note: Access in the RAISE™ Framework includes organization of the message, structure of the document, multimedia supports, and digital accessibility as defined by WCAG Standards.

This post walks through how the guide came to life: the problems it aimed to solve, the research behind it, and the design decisions that shaped the final framework.

Why I Created the Visual Plain Language Guide

The guide began from a simple question I kept getting in workshops, client projects, and conversations with other communicators:

“Plain language makes sense in theory — but how do I see it?”

Plain language is often taught as a set of writing rules, but what I witnessed repeatedly were moments of visual confusion:

• text structured in ways readers couldn’t navigate

• ideas buried because the hierarchy didn’t guide the eye

• information mapped in the writer’s mind, but not for the reader’s brain

Those who know me a little know I am BIG on cohesion and coherence–the visible links and the underlying clarity of thought that go into good writing. So I set out to show, even if a little, how these come to life. And I started sketching. I started with my existing RAISE™ wheel and it all evolved from there.

Those sketches became motifs: the target for goals (page 9), the puzzle pieces for flow (page 22), the hand and heart for empathy (page 23). Eventually, they evolved into a unified visual language to communicate the concepts of plain language — not within design, but through design.

A Visual Guide — Not a Design Guide

One thing I want readers to understand is: This isn’t a guide about visual design. It’s a guide that uses visual design to teach plain language.

Every icon and layout choice serves a conceptual purpose:

• The RAISE™ principles wheel (page 6) represents balance and interplay.

• The quadrants of clarity (page 7) visualize the differences in clarity and gobbledygook for lay and specialized communication.

• The 10-step circular diagram (page 8) positions clarity as an iterative, non-linear process.

I didn’t set out to create a “pretty PDF.” I set out to make abstract principles visible and memorable. In the Visual Plain Language Guide, each visual is tied to a principle or technique for making communication easier to find, understand, and use.

How the Guide Took Shape

Here’s the development journey behind the scenes:

1. Grounding the guide in international standards

Years before the ISO 24495-1 Plain Language Standard existed, I developed the RAISE™ model—Relevance, Access, Intelligibility, Suitability, and Efficacy—as a practical way to explain what makes communication clear. It grew out of years of observing where communication breaks down and noticing that “understanding” isn’t one thing; it’s a combination of how clearly something is expressed (intelligibility) and how well it fits the reader’s needs and context (suitability).

When ISO began drafting what would become the first international plain language standard, I was invited to join the technical committee responsible for shaping it. It was remarkable to see how closely the developing ISO principles aligned with the structure I had already been using in RAISE™—even though the model predated the standard.

The only real difference is conceptual emphasis. ISO includes “Understandable” as one of its five principles, while in RAISE™ that idea unfolds into its two essential dimensions:

• Intelligibility — the clarity and precision of the expression

• Suitability — the appropriateness and resonance of the style for the intended readers

Together, they capture what understanding actually requires in real-world communication: clarity expressed in a style that meets readers where they are.

Because of this natural alignment, RAISE™ maps cleanly to the ISO standard, allowing the guide to stand on an internationally recognized foundation while preserving the nuance, depth, and reader-centered structure that originally inspired RAISE™.

2. Turning research into approachable visuals

Once I knew the guide needed to show plain language, not just explain it, I returned to the research. Studies on cognitive load, reading behavior, and visual processing all point to the same truth: people understand faster when information is paired with clear, meaningful visuals. Not decorative visuals — but visuals that orient, anchor, and reinforce meaning.

So I began developing a visual vocabulary for the guide: a system of icons, metaphors, colors, and spatial patterns that help readers grasp concepts at a glance. Every visual decision had a purpose:

• The magnifying glass + lightbulb + gear (page 4) conveys “find, understand, use.”

• The audience icons (page 12) show diversity without over-specificity.

• The color palette leans friendly and modern — bright but soft, not childish.

The visuals aren’t decoration; they’re cognitive scaffolding.

3. Building a structure readers can follow at a glance

The guide mirrors the very principles it teaches:

• Clear sections (Goals → Readers → Structure → Design → Words →…)

• Consistent iconography

• Headings that double as meaning cues

• Logical flow from “thinking” steps to “crafting” steps to “refining” steps

This scaffolding is visible on nearly every page, especially the 10-step cycle on page 8 of the Visual Plain Language Guide.

4. Iterating through testing and feedback

Just as step 10 of the guide emphasizes Get Feedback (page 27), I moved through several cycles of:

• testing concepts with writers and editors

• adjusting language

• simplifying visuals

• refining metaphors

• tweaking contrast and spacing

Each iteration made the guide more coherent, lighter, and more intuitively navigable.

Why the Guide Looks Playful

Plain language can feel rigid or even simplistic. I wanted to challenge that perception.

That’s why the guide uses:

• rounded icons, not rigid lines
• asymmetric silhouettes, giving movement and energy
• vivid colors that signal friendliness
• visual metaphors that feel human, like the helping hand or warm lightbulb

This visual tone embodies the empathy at the heart of plain language (step 8, page 23).

Icon System Inside Visual Plain Language Guide

Here are the icons for each of the ten steps of the Visual Plain Language Guide.

What the Visual Plain Language Guide Aims to Do

Ultimately, the guide is meant to:

• make plain language principles more teachable

• help teams create better documents, services, and policies

• support trust, clarity, and usability (page 29)

• show that communication can be both rigorous and inviting

In other words, the guide exists to turn the journey from ideas to results (page 33) into something clearer, lighter, and more human.

But, why is centering your writing around your readers important? Here are five reasons plain language is right for you:

1. Ventaja estratégica. Plain language inspires confidence and credibility by helping readers understand you better, which in turn shows that you care. You will gain an edge over the competition and boost your reputation.
2. Ahorro de tiempo: El lenguaje claro es una forma comprobada de reducir las llamadas de aclaración, idas y vueltas y tareas de seguimiento debidas a información incompleta o errónea. Ahorra tu tiempo y el de tus lectores.
3. Beneficios económicos: Un lenguaje claro y directo es rentable tanto por el ahorro de tiempo —que aumenta tu eficiencia— como por la mejora de la reputación —que aumenta la satisfacción y la fidelidad de tus lectores.
4. Regulatory Compliance: Plain language helps you and your readers adhere to laws, regulations, guidelines, and standards.
5. Tranquilidad: El lenguaje claro es un derecho civil. Las personas tienen derecho a entender la información que se comparte con ellas. Al utilizar un lenguaje claro, estás cumpliendo con un deber cívico. ¡Y se siente muy bien hacer lo correcto!

Now, don’t take my word for it, examples big and small prove the point. Consider these cases:

• Plain language reduced calls about a benefits letter at a Veterans Affairs office by 83%! (They went from 1128 a year to 192). You can read more here.
• The Plain English Campaign in the UK helped former British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) redraft a lease agreement to 1/3 of its original size, cutting negotiations from 6 months to less than 1, which helped them cash in on the $180M deal that much faster.
• In 2013, GE Aviation was consolidating digital-services from a merger of three businesses. Each had their own contracts from pre-GE days. A plain language initiative consolidated 7 different contracts into one single plain-language contract that now takes a whopping 60% less time to negotiate than their previous legalese-laden versions. Shawn Burton shares the full story here: https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-case-for-plain-language-contracts
• Ikea Ibérica issued in 2019 its first Non-Financial Report in response to Act 11/2018 on Ethical Management and Diversity. The company implemented plain language in the report to the delight of customers and managers alike. More about this story here: https://www.ikea.com/es/es/this-is-ikea/about-us/memoria-anual-ikea-pubb99d9de1
• You may remember that a decade ago Netflix was going through a rebrand when it lost almost a million subscribers virtually overnight due what even its CEO Reed Hastings described as “miscommunication” (for a while his blog on the issue could be found here: https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/). Netflix picked itself up and learned to communicate in plain language. You can see the results in the FAQ section of the website: https://www.netflix.com/.

I want to wish a Happy New Year to everyone in 2021. Last year was a challenging year that had, for me, some serendipitous silver linings. On the challenging side, Covid-2 and Covid-2-related measures made it emotionally very hard. Many of us have lost loved ones to Covid-2 and other diseases and dealing with the losses was tougher than usual (no goodbyes and no hugs add a pounding void to the pain.) On the serendipitous side, digital connections that were growing slowly due to the business of life had room to blossom, and I was fortunate to see friendships, work ties, and projects be born and strengthened.

I choose today to celebrate because, as a child and with my own children, I’ve celebrated the legend of the Three Wise Men— Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar—on January 6^th. (They are also called The Magi, which is a word that I find almost as special as “serendipity,” my very favorite one. It conjures up images of knowledge, enchantment, and transformation.) These men were said to be priests and scholars from different corners of the world who brought gifts to the manger in Christian legend.

The gifts are most often described as gold, frankincense, and myrrh as symbols of earth, heaven, and death (frankincense and myrrh were used in embalming). I choose to see them as symbols of wisdom and achievement, enjoyment, and healthy aging: gold is the symbol of the fiftieth wedding anniversary—an achievement not for its duration but for its perseverance and adaptability—, frankincense of recovery and healing, myrrh of rejuvenation. Beauty and well-being are a key part of life. But the one aspect that I truly celebrate today is learning. I truly believe life is worth living because we can learn.

I remember a supposedly humorous sign in my high school library that read “Read plenty and you’ll be a wise corpse.” I get it. Learning alone may seem like a Sisyphean task. But, just in itself, it can be a profound experience, as Quevedo states in his sonnet: “Among few books yet learned ones, I live in conversation with the dead, I listen with my eyes to their minds.” And when you share it with others, learning becomes profoundly soulful. For me, learning and sharing what I learn is a magical reason for life.

In learning with others and sharing my learning, I have forged the most amazing friendships, several during our challenging 2020, and for that I am grateful today and I celebrate.

May 2021 bring us new and exciting learning that we can share with one another to better ourselves, our communities, and our environment.

To support this, ISO is currently developing a new standard, ISO 24495, Plain language – Part 1: Governing principles and guidelines, which will provide authors in most languages with an approach that helps them communicate effectively with their audiences. It will feature high-level principles, guidelines and techniques to help writers everywhere produce communications that work.

I work with medical content and health information, and believe awareness and learning are necessary not only to help low literacy readers, but all readers, including experts and policymakers who can benefit (and benefit us all) from clarity and conciseness.

Cheryl Stephens, co-founder with Kate Harrison Whiteside of Plain Language Association International, recommends:

• Making every word work,
• Ditching superfluous information,
• Using short paragraphs,
• Adding summaries,
• Using simple layouts,
• Adding visual emphasis.

I love this, and I’d add a reminder about advice that, while well-meaning, often misses the mark:

• Do not “write as if you were speaking” in hopes of sounding more natural.

Ok, yeah, spontaneous communication is… well, spontaneous. But, seriously, no reader wants to read drafts, they want to read final content! Plain language in health literacy (and everywhere) is about clarity for the reader, not easiness for the writer. Can you help me spread the word?

Here’s a bit of a deeper dive: A piece of advice out of context can have disastrous consequences, especially when the nibble turns into dogma. As plain language practitioners, we do a disservice to readers and writers if we promote “writing as if you were speaking.” The problem is that, at best, this requires interpretation: “Oh, I meant using a relaxed style, lay terms for a general text, a friendly voice, etc.” At worst, this is taken at face value and erodes the use of writing as a cognitive tool. Stream-of-consciousness–style writing is a great technique for the process of writing, but has no place in the product of an informative text.

The word “grammar” refers both to the rules that govern language production and comprehension and to the study of those rules. As the set of rules and principles governing the use of language, grammar is as old as the oldest of languages!

As the study of the rules, it has a long history. The oldest grammar studies come from ancient India, centuries before our common era, and deal with the rules of the Sanskrit language. The most recognized Sanskrit grammarian was Panini, whose ideas about grammar are still used today! In Europe, grammar emerged as a discipline in Greece, with authors like Aristarchus of Samothrace, who baptized it “the art of letters.” In Ancient Rome, Latin grammar was developed based on Greek ideas, and became a pillar of the the art of eloquence, with rhetoric and dialectics (taught alongside the art of numbers).

The Birth of Spanish

Nebrija’s Grammar

Throughout the Middle Ages, various factors contributed to the birth of Romance languages, including Spanish. Among these factors, the strict grammatical prescriptions of classical Latin drove a wedge between the language of scholars and the vulgar or popular Latin spoken by uneducated people. Also, the new geopolitical conditions of a fragmented empire furthered a linguistic fracture that gradually gave rise to heterogeneous (region-specific), although interrelated, vernacular languages.

In Spain, a variety of Romance languages coexisted for centuries, including Galician, Castilian, Leonese, Catalan, and Asturian. At the end of the XI century, a process of linguistic reunification began thanks to the rise of Spanish as the language for the chansons de geste. These epic poems served as example, inspiration, and entertainment, much as the heroes and stories in today’s Marvel movies. In the second half of the XIII century, during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile and Leon, Spanish acquired official status. The king had all official documents written directly in Castilian or translated into Castilian, rather than having them in Latin, as it had been the custom until then.

The political rise of the new languages inspired the interest to study them in their own right. The Sevillian Antonio de Nebrija was the first scholar of Romance languages to understand the importance of writing down their rules. Thus, in 1492, he published in Salamanca his Gramática de la lengua castellana, which is not only the first book on the grammar of the Spanish language, but also the first book on any Romance language at all. In the prologue to Queen Elizabeth the Catholic, he states:

“When I think to myself, my enlightened queen: […] and I put before my eyes all that has been written for our memory and remembrance, one thing I find and I draw to a certain conclusion: that the [Latin] language was always a companion of the [Roman] empire; such was their association that together they rose, grew, and flourished, and later together they fell […] And because my thought and will have always been to magnify the achievements of our nation, and to give the men of my language books to make the best use of their leisure […], I decided before all other things to lay down the art of our Castilian language. Thereby, what is henceforth written in our language may remain in a style and endure the test of time, as has been done with Greek and Latin, for the study of their art has allowed them, through the many centuries of their existence, to endure in their uniformity.”

(My translation.)

Spanish Sets Sail

Bilingual exchange between a native and a missionary

It may not escape the reader that that same year of 1492, Christopher Columbus was authorized by the Catholic Monarchs to seek new trade routes to the Indies across the Atlantic. Spain, like many previous kingdoms, sought to expand its power. During this expansion, the discovery and subsequent conquest of a new continent led to the spread of Castilian as a lingua franca.

However, the process of Castilianization was much slower than the geopolitical and religious expansion. This expansion was accelerated by the papal concession of lands to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal as vicars of the Catholic god. Spain claimed vast territories of the Americas as their own (aided by the Tordesilles Treaty that delineated the claiming rights of Spain and Portugal.) As a result of these territorial claims, the indigenous people already living in the Americas were deemed subjects of the crown: they had to be christened and taxed.

The task of communicating with the natives fell mainly on the missionaries. In their quest to convert the natives to their faith, the missionaries also spoke up for native rights. To a great extent, the missionaries advocated for the use of native languages, and were devoted to developing teaching materials, such as grammars and bilingual glossaries. A famous sermon given before Christmas in 1511 by Antonio de Montesinos, exhorts:

“Are they not men? Do they not have rational souls? Are you not bound to love them as you love yourselves? How can you lie in such lethargic slumber? Rest assured that in your present state, you can no more be saved than the Moors or the Turks who have no want or fear for the faith of Jesus Christ.”

(My translation.)

Montesino’s sermon ignited a fierce debate over native rights and identity, and led Spaniards to initially adopt bilingualism for economic and religious gain. They had the help of an invaluable group of native speakers of aboriginal languages, who were often the product of slavery or miscegenation and became interpreters by necessity.

However, communicating amidst the linguistic diversity of the New World’s native languages proved quite difficult. The scarce number of Castilian-speakers and the difficulties of the terrain added to the diversity of native languages led the missionaries to favor Nahuatl over other languages. In 1570, to overcome the problems that linguistic variety posed while “respecting” the right to a native language, King Philip II decreed Nahuatl as the official language of the Viceroyalty of New Spain — officially created in 1535. This imposition proved unsustainable, as it was a foreign language for both the Spaniards and many of the native peoples.

In 1696, King Charles II established Spanish as the only official language of the Viceroyalty. In this way, Spanish became the first modern European language to be massively taught as a second language. Bilingualism persisted in the home, while Spanish quickly spread to all aspects of public and political life.

Spanish in the Americas

Bello’s Grammar of 1847

The Spanish of the criollos, native Spanish-speakers born in America, was, by the end of the seventeenth century, its own version of peninsular Spanish. This Creole Spanish had developed on the basis of southern Andalusian phonetics, with seseo (lack of distinction between /s/ and /th/) and the fall of the final consonants (as in /usté/ instead of /usted/); the inclusion of indigenous words, such as maíz (corn), maní (peanut), huracán (hurricane) and chocolate; and the Sevillian syntax, which incorporated the use of ustedes (informal plural for you) to the detriment of vosotros (formal plural for you.)

Faced with a new transcontinental linguistic reality, the Real Academia Española was founded in 1713, “to cultivate and solidify in any possible way the purity and elegance of the Castilian language” through the creation of a dictionary, “the most copious that could be created”.

For more than a century, American Spanish had a submissive place to Peninsular Spanish until 1847. That year, the Venezuelan scholar Andrés Bello wrote his Grammar of the Castilian Language Intended for the Use of Americans. Understanding that “each language has its genius, its physiognomy, its twists”, Bello took on the task of describing based on observations the innovative identity of American Spanish.

“I did not want […] to rely on authorities, because for me the only unimpeachable language is language itself. […] The prodigious advancement of all science and art, the spread of intellectual culture, and the political revolutions of our time call every day for new signs that express new ideas.”

(My translation.)

Bello’s intention was not to “write for the Castilians,” meaning European Spaniards, but rather to bring together in language all of the young American nations where SPanish was spoken. This goal was faithful to Nebrija’s ideal of avoiding linguistic fragmentation (especially in syntax), considered a sign of cultural and political weakening. In the Prologue to his Grammar, he explained his animosity towards changes in syntax:

“[…]the greatest of all evils, and the one that, if it unchecked, will deny us of the priceless advantages of a common language, is that of new structures. It already floods and muddies much of what is written in America. Liberties of construction alter the structure of the language, turning it into a multitude of irregular, licentious, and barbarian dialects. As embryos of future languages, the belabored transformations of these language-lings would replicate in America the dark era of the corruption of Latin in Europe. Chile, Peru, Buenos Aires, and Mexico would each speak their own language, or rather, several languages, as happens in Spain, Italy, and France.”

(My translation.)

In pursuit of the unity of language and, more specifically, of the homogenization of syntax, Bello used as his model the Spanish of “educated people.” These were speakers who, because they had had access to formal education, shared a mutually comprehensible language even when they lived in very distant regions. He shared this rationale in the preface to his Grammar:

“This use is preferred because it is the most uniform in the various provinces and towns that speak the same language, and therefore the one that makes what is said easier and more often understood. In contrast, the words and phrases of uneducated people vary greatly from one town and province to another, and are not easily understood outside that narrow environment in which they were born.”
(My translation.)

In the late 19th century, awareness about American Spanish led to the creation of national language academies in the New World. The first one to be founded was the Colombian Language Academy in 1871. Today, there are 22 national academies: in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Spain, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. These 22 academies collaborate in the Association of Spanish Language Academies (ASALE), which was founded in 1951 at the behest of the then President of Mexico, Miguel Alemán Valdés, in order to work towards the unity of language as cultural heritage.

Pan-Hispanic Spanish

At the beginning of the 21st century, almost a century after the last grammar published by the Royal Academy in 1931, ASALE brought together scholars from all over the Spanish-speaking world to create the first consensual pan-Hispanic grammar. More than a hundred scholars collaborated in the new grammar with the aim of describing the grammatical constructions typical of Spanish in general, while giving an account of the phonological, morphological, and syntactic variants from different areas. In 2009, the new grammar of the Spanish language, Nueva gramática de la lengua española, was officially launched under the slogan “the grammar that makes us”. The work has three volumes, one on morphology, one on syntax, and one on phonetics and phonology, as well as a DVD of voices of Spanish for educational purposes, gathering the diversity of the language “from the mouths of speakers in all linguistic areas”.

According to a recent study based on data collected from Twitter messages, it can still be said that three large Spanish-speaking regions endure, reflecting patterns of colonial settlement that developed differences specific to each region. The Iberian Peninsula is the original region, the Central American Caribbean region, along with Mexico and Peru, make up the second region, and finally, the Southern Cone is the third region. To these, we should perhaps add today the United States as the youngest region, a melting pot of Spanish dialects where speakers from the three previous regions converge.

Spanish Around the World

Did you know that Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world? With about 580 million speakers, it is only second to Mandarin Chinese as mother tongue (and Mandarin Chinese might be better defined as a set of mutually intelligible dialects). English is the most spoken language as a second language. Spanish is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations and one of the most studied as a foreign language.

Spanish is the official language in 20 countries in the Americas, one in Europe and two in Africa, by declaration or adoption in governmental institutions, as in the case of Argentina. More than 400 million native Spanish-speakers live in the Americas, from Argentina and Chile to Canada and the United States. The US, it bears mentioning, with some 55 million Spanish speakers, has become the second Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico, despite Spanish not being an official Spanish language.

Spanish is also the official language in the African nations of Equatorial Guinea and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and is spoken in Cameroon, Nigeria, Gabon, Morocco, Angola, Turkey, Israel, Philippines, Brazil, and several islands in Oceania.

Historia del español y su gramática

La gramática y su estudio

La palabra “gramática” se refiere tanto a las normas que rigen la producción y comprensión del idioma, como a su estudio. Entendida como conjunto de reglas y principios que gobiernan el uso de una lengua concreta, ¡la gramática es tan antigua como la más antigua de las lenguas!

En tanto estudio de las reglas, tiene una historia milenaria. Las gramáticas más antiguas que se conocen provienen de la antigua India, y tratan de las reglas del idioma sánscrito. El gramático indio más reconocido fue Panini, cuya obra, escrita en el siglo IV AEC, ¡estableció conceptos aún utilizados hoy en día! En el mundo occidental, la gramática surgió como disciplina en Grecia, con varios autores, entre ellos Aristarco de Samotracia, quien la bautizó “el arte de las letras”. En la Antigua Roma, la gramática latina se desarrolló con base en los preceptos griegos, y se convirtió en uno de los pilares de la enseñanza de las artes de la elocuencia, con la retórica y la dialéctica (impartidas junto a las artes de los números).

El nacimiento del español

A lo largo de la Edad Media, diversos factores contribuyeron al surgimiento de lenguas romances (también denominadas románicas o neolatinas), entre ellas, el español. La estricta prescripción gramatical del latín clásico —ya diferenciado del latín vulgar o popular— y las nuevas condiciones geopolíticas de un imperio fragmentado fomentaron una fractura lingüística que, paulatinamente, dio origen a lenguas vernáculas heterogéneas (específicas de cada región), aunque interrelacionadas.

En España, donde coexistían diversas lenguas romances —como el gallego, el castellano, el catalán, el leonés y el asturiano— comenzó a fines del siglo XI un proceso de reunificación lingüística gracias a la difusión del español como la lengua de los cantares de gesta (que servían de ejemplo e inspiración, lo mismo que las historias de los superhéroes de hoy). Durante el reinado de Alfonso X de Castilla y León, el español adquirió estatus oficial, ya que el rey hizo redactar directamente en castellano o traducir a éste, y no al latín, como hasta entonces, todos los documentos oficiales.

Junto al ascenso político de las nuevas lenguas, surgió la necesidad de estudiarlas en derecho propio. El sevillano Antonio de Nebrija fue el primer estudioso de lenguas romances en comprender la importancia de asentar por escrito la gramática de las nuevas lenguas. Así, en 1492, publicó en Salamanca su Gramática de la lengua castellana, que no sólo es el primer tratado de gramática de la lengua española, sino también el primer tratado impreso de una lengua romance. En el prólogo a la Reina Isabel la Católica, indica:

Cuando bien conmigo pienso, muy esclarecida reina: […] y pongo delante de los ojos todas las cosas que para nuestra recordación y memoria quedaron escritas, una cosa hallo y saco por conclusión muy cierta: que siempre la lengua [latina] fue compañera del imperio [romano]; y de tal manera lo siguió, que juntamente comenzaron, crecieron, y florecieron, y después junta fue la caída de entrambos […] Y porque mi pensamiento y voluntad siempre fue engrandecer las cosas de nuestra nación, y dar a los hombres de mi lengua obras en que mejor puedan emplear su ocio […], acordé ante todas las otras cosas asentar el arte de este nuestro lenguaje castellano, para que lo que de ahora en adelante en él se escribiere pueda quedar en un estilo, y extenderse en toda la duración de los tiempos que están por venir, como vemos que se ha hecho en la lengua griega y latina, las cuales por haber sido estudiadas en su arte, aunque sobre ellas han pasado muchos siglos, todavía perduran en su uniformidad.

(Nebrija, 1492. Gramática.
Adaptación del español antiguo, hecha por la autora)

Ese mismo año, Cristóbal Colón recibió la autorización de los Reyes Católicos para buscar nuevas rutas mercantiles a las Indias por el Atlántico. España, como muchos reinos anteriores, buscaba expandir su poder. Durante esta expansión, el descubrimiento y posterior conquista de un nuevo continente propiciaron la difusión del castellano como lengua franca.

Sin embargo, el largo proceso de castellanización iniciado por los conquistadores fue mucho más lento que la expansión geopolítica y religiosa. Como consecuencia de la concesión papal de tierras al reino de España, en tanto vicario del dios católico, se consideró a los indígenas súbditos de la corona, a quienes había que cristianizar y cobrar impuestos. La tarea de comunicación, eminentemente lingüística, recayó sobre los misioneros, quienes en gran medida abogaron por el uso de las lenguas nativas, y se abocaron al desarrollo de materiales pedagógicos, como gramáticas y glosarios bilingües. En un principio, fueron los españoles quienes adoptaron el bilingüismo para provecho económico y religioso, no sin la ayuda de un grupo invaluable de hablantes nativos de las lenguas aborígenes, que se convirtieron en intérpretes y eran a menudo producto de la esclavitud o el mestizaje. Sin embargo, la comunicación con grupos lingüísticos tan diversos era muy dificultosa. En pos de paliar esta situación sin dejar de “respetar” el uso de idiomas nativos, en 1570, el rey Felipe II decretó el náhuatl como lengua oficial de Virreinato de la Nueva España (creado en 1535). Esta imposición resultó insostenible, ya que se trataba de una lengua extranjera tanto para los españoles como para muchos pueblos nativos. En 1696, el rey Carlos II estableció el español como único idioma oficial del virreinato.  De esta manera, el español se convirtió en la primera lengua europea moderna en enseñarse masivamente como segundo idioma.

El español de las Américas

El español de los criollos, hispanohablantes nativos nacidos en América, era, para finales del siglo XVII, una versión del español peninsular con características propias. El español criollo se había desarrollado con base en la fonética meridional andaluza (con el seseo y la caída de las consonantes finales como en /usté/), la inclusión de indigenismos (como maíz, maní, huracán y chocolate) y la sintaxis sevillana (que incorporó el uso de usted/ustedes en detrimento del vos/vosotros) [i].

De cara a una nueva realidad lingüística transcontinental, en 1713 se fundó en España la Real Academia Española, “para cultivar y fijar en el modo posible la pureza y elegancia de la lengua castellana” mediante la creación de un diccionario, “el más copioso que pudiere hacerse”.

Durante más de un siglo, el español americano ocupó un lugar sumiso frente al peninsular, hasta que en 1847 el estudioso venezolano Andrés Bello escribió su Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los americanos. Entendiendo que “cada lengua tiene su genio, su fisonomía, sus giros”, Bello se abocó a la tarea de darle al español americano su identidad innovadora basándose en la observación.

No he querido […] apoyarme en autoridades, porque para mí la sola irrecusable en lo tocante a una lengua es la lengua misma. […] El adelantamiento prodigioso de todas las ciencias y las artes, la difusión de la cultura intelectual y las revoluciones políticas, piden cada día nuevos signos para expresar ideas nuevas.

(Bello, 1847, Gramática)

Bello no pretendía “escribir para los castellanos” (refiriéndose a los españoles de la península), pero sí apuntaba a la unificación de la lengua en las nacientes naciones americanas, retomando la idea de Nebrija de evitar la fragmentación lingüística (sobre todo desde el punto de vista sintáctico) por ser signo de debilitamiento cultural y político. En el Prólogo de su Gramática explicó su animosidad a los cambios sintácticos:

[…] el mayor mal de todos, y el que, si no se ataja, va a privarnos de las inapreciables ventajas de un lenguaje común, es la avenida de neologismos de construcción, que inunda y enturbia mucha parte de lo que se escribe en América, y alterando la estructura del idioma, tiende a convertirlo en una multitud de dialectos irregulares, licenciosos, bárbaros; embriones de idiomas futuros, que durante una larga elaboración reproducirían en América lo que fue la Europa en el tenebroso período de la corrupción del latín. Chile, el Perú, Buenos Aires, México, hablarían cada uno su lengua, o por mejor decir, varias lenguas, como sucede en España, Italia y Francia.

En pos de la unidad del idioma y, más específicamente, de la homogeneización de la sintaxis, Bello usó como modelo el español de la “gente educada”, que por tener acceso a una educación formal compartía la lengua aun estando en regiones muy alejadas, lo que promovía la comprensión.

Se prefiere este uso porque es el más uniforme en las varias provincias y pueblos que hablan una misma lengua, y por lo tanto el que hace que más fácil y generalmente se entienda lo que se dice; al paso que las palabras y frases propias de la gente ignorante varían mucho de unos pueblos y provincias a otros, y no son fácilmente entendidas fuera de aquel estrecho recinto en que las usa el vulgo.

(Bello, “Nociones preliminares”, Gramática, 1847)

La concientización sobre el español americano llevó hacia fines del siglo XIX a la creación de academias nacionales del idioma, la primera de las cuales fue la Academia Colombiana de la Lengua, fundada en 1871. Hoy en día existen 22 academias nacionales (en Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, España, Estados Unidos, Filipinas, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana, Uruguay y Venezuela). Las 22 academias colaboran en la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE), que fue fundada en 1951 a instancias del entonces Presidente de México, Miguel Alemán Valdés, a fin de trabajar en pos de la unidad del idioma como patrimonio cultural.

El español panhispánico

A principios del siglo XXI, casi un siglo después de la última gramática publicada por la Real Academia en 1931, ASALE reunió a estudiosos de todo el mundo hispanohablante para crear la primera gramática panhispánica consensuada. Colaboraron en la nueva gramática más de un centenar de estudiosos con el objetivo de describir las construcciones gramaticales propias del español en general, y al mismo tiempo dar cuenta de las variantes fonológicas, morfológicas y sintácticas propias de las diversas zonas. En 2009, se presentó oficialmente, bajo el lema “la gramática que somos”, la Nueva gramática de la lengua española. La obra cuenta con tres tomos sobre morfología, sintaxis y fonética y fonología, así como un DVD de voces del español con fines didácticos, que recoge la diversidad del idioma “en boca de hablantes de todas las áreas lingüísticas”.

Según un reciente estudio realizado con base en datos recogidos en mensajes de Twitter, se puede decir que siguen existiendo tres grandes regiones hispanohablantes, que reflejan en parte los patrones de asentamiento colonial, y muestran divergencias internas propias a cada región. La península ibérica constituye el conglomerado original, la región centroamericana del Caribe, junto a México y Perú, conforman el segundo conglomerado, y, finalmente, el Cono Sur constituye el conglomerado más joven. A esto debemos quizás hoy agregar el crisol de dialectos en el que se ha convertido Estados Unidos, donde confluyen hablantes de las tres regiones anteriores.

Hoy en día hay unos 500 millones de hispanohablantes en el mundo. ¡El español es la una de las lenguas más habladas en el mundo como lengua materna![ii] El español es además uno de los seis idiomas oficiales de las Naciones Unidas[iii]. Más de 400 millones de hispanohablantes habitan países donde el español es la lengua oficial (por declaración o adopción en las instituciones gubernamentales), y unos 75 millones habitan en países donde el español no es reconocido como lengua oficial (como en Estados Unidos o Brasil). De la totalidad de hablantes de la lengua española, 90 por ciento reside en países americanos, de Argentina y Chile a Canadá y Estados Unidos.

En Estados Unidos, el español es la segunda lengua materna del país, con casi 40 millones de hablantes[iv]. Sin embargo, muchos de ellos no han tenido acceso al tipo de educación a la que se refirió Bello, y han adquirido su idioma sólo en forma oral y sin instrucción formal. Otro aspecto del español estadounidense es que existe una gran diversidad dialectal, poco estudiada.

A pesar de que el español no es un idioma oficial en Estados Unidos, muchos organismos oficiales, organizaciones no gubernamentales y empresas privadas hacen traducir gran cantidad de documentos al español[v]. Lamentablemente, no siempre las traducciones están en manos de profesionales capacitados, y esto ha hecho que muchos textos estén muy mal traducidos o escritos en un español que resulta, en la práctica, ininteligible. ¡Es esto lo que queremos evitar! Debemos reconocer también el trabajo incansable que muchos y muy buenos traductores han brindado en los diversos ámbitos mencionados, y la colaboración que se está forjando entre el gobierno y la Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua, especialmente en lo referente a consultas sobre el sitio web GobiernoUSA.gov.

En pos de la comunicación

Este post se publicó originalmente en Al rescate del español (ex Cuatro mosqueteras) el 28 de junio de 2016. con el deseo de dar acceso a los hispanohablantes estadounidenses a nociones de gramática y escritura tendientes a la comunicación eficaz.

Sigue siendo mi deseo aydar a transmitir un mensaje claro, en el que el escritor diga realmente lo que quiere decir, sin los malentendidos ni la confusión que llevan a aclaraciones, afrentas y altercados innecesarios. El trabajo en pos de la comunicación clara apunta a cumplir con el deseo de Nebrija de escribir correctamente para nosotros y para nuestro porvenir, teniendo en cuenta nuestras circunstancias.

Notas

[i] Derivado de “vuestra merced”. Una consecuencia importante del reajuste pronominal fue la diferenciación regional entre zonas con tuteo (uso de tú) y zonas con voseo (uso de vos) para la forma familiar de segunda persona del singular en América, y la distinción con España en la segunda persona del plural (en América se usa “ustedes” tanto formal como informalmente, mientras que España se distingue entre “ustedes” y “vosotros”).

[ii] El libro de datos de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia considera al español como segunda lengua materna del mundo, detrás del chino mandarín, y delante del inglés, aunque el inglés es la lengua franca moderna con la mayor cantidad de hablantes como segunda lengua.

[iii] Los cinco restantes son, en orden alfabético árabe, chino, francés, inglés y ruso.

[iv] Según una investigación del Pew Research Center del año 2013.

[v] Una tendencia que se inició con la promulgación de la Ley de Derechos Civiles en 1964 (que promueve la traducción de información destinada a los ciudadanos y residentes del país, en reconocimiento de las necesidades de las minorías).

References / Bibliografía

BELLO, Andrés. 1847. Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los americanos. Edición digital a partir de Obras completas. Tomo Cuarto, 3ªed., Caracas, La Casa de Bello, 1995. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/andres_bello/obra-visor-din/gramatica-gramatica-de-la-lengua-castellana-destinada-al-uso-de-los-americanos–0/html/ff6ef310-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_44.html. Consulta del 27/2/16.

BRAVO, Eva. “Rasgos de procedencia andaluza en la variedad americana”. Español de América. http://www.xn--espaoldeamerica-1qb.com/rasgos-de-procedencia-andaluza-en-la-variedad-americana/. Consulta del 27/2/16.

CIFUENTES, Bárbara. 1998. Letras sobre voces: multilingüismo a través de la historia. México. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social e Instituto Nacional Indigenista.

DE NEBRIJA, Antonio. 1492. Gramática de la lengua castellana. http://www.filos.unam.mx/LICENCIATURA/Pagina_FyF_2004/ introduccion/Gramatica_Nebrija.pdf. Consulta del 3/5/16.

Estatutos de la Real Academia Española. Estatutos_1715.pdf. http://www.rae.es/la-institucion/organizacion/estatutos. Consulta del 3/7/16.

FRAGO GRACIA, Jose Antonio. Historia del español de América. Madrid, Gredos.

GONÇALVES, Bruno y SÁNCHEZ, David. “Crowdsourcing Dialect Characterization through Twitter”. PlosONE. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0112074. 19 de noviembre de 2014. Consulta del 3/5/16.

GONZALEZ-BARRERA, Ana y HUGO LOPEZ, Mark. “Spanish is the most spoken non‑English language in U.S. homes, even among non-Hispanics.” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/13/spanish-is-the-most-spoken-non-english-language-in-u-s-homes-even-among-non-hispanics/. 13 de agosto 2013. Consulta del 3/10/16.

Languages. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/Library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2098.html. S.f. Consulta del 2/10/16.

MARIMÓN LLORCA, Carmen. “El español en América: de la conquista a la Época Colonial”. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/el-espaol-en-amrica-de-la-conquista-a-la-poca-colonial-0/html/00f4b922-82b2-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html. S.f. Consulta del 2/14/16.

KRAMER, Samuel Noah. (1988). History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History. Philadelphia, PA. University of Pennsylvania Press. (3^ra ed.)

Translation:

You have filled my heart with emotion, tears are welling up in my eyes! What clarity you have poured into this article! What a way to weave one stage into the next in the evolution of the Spanish language without falling prey to the spider’s web of “historicism” but rather giving it a modern, fresh, and clear take. Congratulations! You don’t know how pleased I am to embark on this project in the company of someone with your vision!

In this moment of painful events–that bear witness to how much work we have ahead–education and clear information are not just essential, they are the only option. In doing my part from my professional place, I am applying plain language to promote respect and tolerance.

Among many other pieces of information that require a clarity makeover are clauses to prevent  discrimination. If you do not have an anti-discrimination clause, don’t just use one in gibberish; instead, adapt it to your audience in plain language! Education starts with clarity.

This is one example of how much clearer the message can be. Some of the techniques used here:
1-ditched repetition
2-use of cohesive ties
3-deletion of obvious content

BEFORE:

XYZ does not support and will not tolerate its Service being used to discriminate against others, especially when based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, ancestry or national origin. You are not permitted to use the Service in a manner which would or would likely incite, promote or support such discrimination and you must not use the Service to incite or promote hostility or violence. If we believe in our sole determination that your use of the Service is being used to discriminate, especially if based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, ancestry or national origin, we may permanently or temporarily terminate or suspend your access to the Service without notice and liability for any reason.

AFTER:

At XYZ, we will not allow you to use our Service to unlawfully discriminate or support hostility or violence based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.

If you do, we may terminate or suspend your access to the Service without notice or liability.

How fitting that the 2019 Plain conference, whose theme was “Clear communication – clear results” was in Norway! The true north of plain language is actionable communication and, as you may know, Norway comes from an Old English word, Norþweg, which means “way leading to north.” Don’t get me wrong, this is not an exultation of the north to the detriment of the south; I grew up in Argentina and I know Antarctica is key to our survival in this planet, so I hold the south in high regards. I simply take Norway as a reminder: plain language is about clear communication—rather than writing formulas.

Plain language is, first and foremost, about fostering comprehension. Once people understand a clear, actionable message, they can act appropriately. Whether it is citizens looking for services or participating in democracy, patients choosing treatment or lifestyle options, politicians voting laws based on scientific and technical information, or scientists themselves advancing our knowledge of the world, all participants in the communication process deserve clarity and style.

The conference was supremely organized. As an attendee, I felt welcome in every way: we heard from wonderful speakers (I found someone to share my passion for George Lakoff’s view on metaphors!), had ample time to network with practitioners from all over the world, were treated to great coffee breaks, and were invited to participate on a walking tour of Oslo by a passionate tour guide, who is also a plain language professional. Did you know Norway celebrates Constitution Day (May 17^th 1814) over independence day (June 7^th 1905)?

As a presenter, I felt we had the royal treatment (Norway is a constitutional monarchy.) We had support way before and at every step during the conference. A wonderful tech team was assigned to each of us, and I did use their help to upload the latest files, print handouts and the like. We were in touch with our eloquent moderators—who did a wonderful job introducing us—and were given the chance to be in touch with each other. It is so fun and to the point when we can create dialogue between sessions rather than having them be stand-alone episodes.

I missed the pre-conference day due to a flight delay. Bummer. But I can tell you the two conference days were hugely successful!

Margrethe Kvarenes, our president at PLAIN and Department Head at the Language Council of Norway launched the conference sharing with us “The Norwegian case: a 10-year plain language odyssey.” One key point was the implementation of plain language in law education, stemming from the belief that the language in laws pours out into all types of texts in the public sector. Several federal agencies in Norway are committed to giving advice in clear language and guiding  plain language projects. This and the comments I heard from the pre-conference day definitely highlighted the importance of plain language as a key factor in democracy.

Concurrent sessions during the two conference days were centered around six themes: 1) Plain Language Empowers, 2) Language in the Digital Era, 3) Plain Language in Practice, 4) Culture for Plain Language, 5) Plain Language Pays Off, and 6) Plain Language for Justice and Democracy.

As you know, I specialize in medical communication and health literacy, so I was drawn to health-related sessions. I had the honor of sharing the stage with Petter Øgar, from the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services who shared “A Norwegian Strategy to increase Health Literacy in the Population” and Sarah Lane, from the Irish Cancer Society in Ireland who talked about “The role of clear communication in boosting health literacy and improving cancer outcomes.” In case you are wondering, my session was “Plain Language 2.0 and Health Literacy: New Strategies for Better Outcomes.” The panelists and the content complemented each other quite nicely according to our very own PLAIN President Margrethe Kvarenes, who attended our sessions. We discussed what health literacy is, what an updated definition should include (see my presentation here), how the concept gets named in languages other than English, what organizations can do for patients, and how plain language can contribute as a factor.

In addition to health communication, other sessions discussed access to justice, political identity, how people understand weather and climate matters, how to test for communication and understand your testing results, and much, much more. You can peruse the program here.

I cannot skip telling you about our conference dinner. The menu included a smoked salmon appetizer, a reindeer ragu entree, and a fruity dessert. Dinner also included music and dancing! We had a wonderful Norwegian fiddler perform traditional tunes and a dancer wow us with his acrobatics (a traditional mate-seeking ritual!) Several Norwegian attendees were in traditional Norwegian attire, including Margrethe (here’s our pic!)

A very moving part of our dinner was food for the soul: Awards were given to deserving professionals and organizations! The Christine Mowat Plain Language Achievement Award, recognizing an outstanding contribution to advancing plain language, went to Neil James from Sydney Australia, Executive Director of the Plain English Foundation. Neil received the award amidst the cheers of many colleagues. The very first edition of the Cheryl Stephens Innovation Award, an international award recognizing innovation in plain language, went to the Plain Language Certificate Program at Simon Fraser University in Canada! The award was given jointly to the SFU Continuing Studies Program and instructor Katherine McManus for her essential role in the program. Lifelong Learning Dean Julia Denholm attended the ceremony in Oslo to accept the award.

The closing panels included presentations about digital readership, digitalization, and design. A missing point was machine produced text and plain language post-editing. I am interested in whole text threading features in the face of AI.

If you are curious about where AI generated text is at, here’s an interesting article: New AI fake text generator may be too dangerous to release, say creators. Just to give you an idea of the importance of promoting reading comprehension: some readability projects want to work with the 4,000 most common words, yet it is hugely important to remember that native speakers (in English in this case, but it is similar in most languages) have an active vocabulary of some 10,000-30,000 words (those are words they utter or write), and a passive vocabulary (words they understand) of over 40,000! The variety is not critical for bare survival, but is essential for dignity, democracy, and the pursuit of art and science. We should rejoice in our common denominators, but not be reduced to them! (See this chart about the correlation between reading habits and vocabulary size for native English speakers).

Last but not least, the end panel included a huge announcement: the initiative for plain language standards within the International Standards Organization through Technical Committee 37! This committee works on standards for language and terminology. The committee was approached by the Standards Working Group from the International Plain Language Federation (IPLF), a joint project of three organizations committed to plain language: the Center for Plain Language, Clarity, and the Plain Language Association International (PLAIN). Current IPLF Chair Annetta Cheek made the announcement to the delight of all plain language practitioners! I have to thank IPLF Standards Committee members for their dedication and a friend and colleague, Gael Spivak (Senior Writer at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and editor extraordinaire at Editors Canada) who made the connection between TC37 and IPLF possible! (You can read more about the process here.)

In our networking time, I also met with friend and colleague Antonio Martin from Spain, with whom, among several amazing editors, we founded the Spanish Editors Association (SEA.) The work of SEA and Spanish editors in the US received a warm welcome during the conference. So much so that I was invited to participate in the now official Plain Language Standards Working Group!

The conference ended on September 26^th, but I lingered a bit and interviewed none other than Cheryl Stephens, co-founder of PLAIN, author, speaker, and tireless supporter of clear communication. Come back to check out this interview, you don’t want to miss it!