Church is archaic
Often we may have heard a biblical passage and thought, what relevance has this for me? Especially today. In fact, the relevance of church is questioned by many in society. The church is archaic, old-fashioned and fails to connect with the issues of today might be one way some might put it. If anything, we can shrink back into our buildings every Sunday and feel pro
https://dbobstoner.com/church-is-archaic/
#Lectionary #Community #ekklesia #Jesus #PlainLanguage #Reality

A lot of writing, especially academic writing, is mired in abstraction that can be avoided by finding the real verb. For example:

Discussion of X took place → X was discussed
We carried out measurement of Y → We measured Y
It demonstrates close alignment with Z → It aligns closely with Z

#amediting #editing #copyediting #EditingTips #writing #WritingCommunity #abstraction #PlainLanguage #acwri

"…a significantly major problem with a lot of different individual problematic components"

Let's just call it "a complex problem"

#amediting #editing #copyediting #PlainLanguage

From plain through to sophisticated AF.

#PlainLanguage #linguistics #languageNerds

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsoY4bbMYMO/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Inspired by someone asking for a simple explanation!

#PlainLanguage

Video: What is "plain language" anyway? It's not about simplifying text. And it's not even just about the words. It's about understanding your audience and giving them writing that is clear, concise and well-organized. #PlainLanguage https://youtu.be/JT0U94349Hc

Big milestones reached in https://RateMyPDF.com this week!

- Background processing
- Convert Word files to PDF + auto detect fields (assuming you do things like ___ and [ ] to mark fields)
- Display accessibility details

My secret coding buddy was #chatgpt and I have to say, it makes coding fun. Not effortless, but removes barrier to getting started and much faster than tutorials + documentation.

#accessibility #a11y #PlainLanguage #Readability

"No one has ever complained that a text was too easy to understand."

We all want to come across as professional and knowledgeable, but too often, we end up writing unclear, dense text instead.

"Forget conventions of technical writing. ... Your audience wants easy-to-read content that allows them to get the gist of the message efficiently."

And even experts prefer plain language, says the UX research pioneer Nielsen Norman Group. #PlainLanguage https://www.nngroup.com/articles/plain-language-experts/

I'm very excited our paper about RateMyPDF.com was accepted to #ICAIL International Conference on #AI and #Law in Braga, Portugal.

Going to incorporate reviewer suggestions and new features that we've built since submissions before sharing the paper itself.

Meanwhile, I've have been hacking on RateMyPDF to add more useful #plainLanguage and #readability suggestions. Biggest issue is supporting larger uploads. Integrating tasks and a job queue with #Flaskand #Celery is a new one for me.

Continuing to build on the RateMyPDF.com look and feel. That was the main feedback we got from some of our expert beta testers, that the table layout was confusing and hard to read.

New stats show where your form is compared to benchmark forms (soon to reflect 47 states, 24,000 forms). Red/yellow/green indicates above/within/below one standard deviation of the mean. The progress bar spans 2 standard deviations from mean

#readability #PlainLanguage #AccessToJustice #Courts #Forms

My colleague Mia Bonardi has written a great piece summarizing how to use #chatGPT and #LLMs to reach #PlainLanguage #Readability goals

https://lemmalegal.com/2023/04/02/ditch-the-legalese-for-plain-language-with-chatgpt/

Video: What is "plain language" anyway? It's not about simplifying text. And it's not even just about the words. It's about understanding your audience and giving them writing that is clear, concise and well-organized. #PlainLanguage https://youtu.be/JT0U94349Hc

An article I just posted on Medium about how #snakes see in the dark by converting temperature changes into #electricalimpulses.
#biology #neurobiology #plainlanguage #biophysics #predation

https://medium.com/illumination-curated/how-do-snakes-see-in-the-dark-c437bba7bdc

We may write hard-to-read, impersonal, often passive, wordy text because we believe "in the association between detachment and authority. It’s a belief that ... to achieve real, authoritative, reliable, unquestionable truth, you remove people."

By @sesquiotic on Editors/Réviseurs Canada.
#WordsMatter #PlainLanguage #AcademicWriting

https://blog.editors.ca/?p=9974

W.H. Hindle, a career UN editor, wrote a brief book about UN writing in 1965, which was published by the UN in 1965 & 1984. His observations and commentary strike home still.

For example, he says jargon has "grown like weeds until the flowers of information are hidden not only from laymen but even from specialists in other branches."

I don't know why this booklet is not required reading for UN staff 😆
https://www.unepd.info/Guide%20to%20writing%20for%20the%20united%20nations%20hindle.pdf
#PlainLanguage #UnitedNations #InternationalOrganizations

Video: What is "plain language" anyway? It's not about simplifying text. And it's not even just about the words. It's about understanding your audience and giving them writing that is clear, concise and well-organized. #PlainLanguage https://youtu.be/JT0U94349Hc

New blogpost:
3 types of activities clear-communication specialists do
https://101fragments.wordpress.com/2023/02/22/3-types-of-activities-clear-communication-specialists-do/

After looking at the ‘ingredients’ of #ClearCommunication (a.k.a. #ClearWriting, modern #PlainLanguage), this time I focused on what clear-comm. specialists do:
- transforming documents
- transforming how ppl and orgs write
- building the profession

Putting these thoughts in writing is such a great way to clarify my ideas! Tough work, but worthwhile.

Let me know what you think!

Aaaand relaunched http://data4d.nz yesterday as part of Looking For Work yesterday :)

Those are far from my only skills! Eg #comms, #advocacy, #strategy, #plainlanguage, #foresight / #futurism, etc :)

I caved and bought a subscription to #ChatGPT plus. There have been a few times this semester when I wanted to demonstrate it in class and couldn't. Today's demonstration: using ChatGPT to translate bad legal writing into #PlainLanguage

Now I'll have to see if I can figure out $20/usage per month to decide if it's worth keeping...

#readability #LawSchool #Teaching #LLMs

I used chatGPT to translate a changelog entry into something I could actually understand in #PlainLanguage. It worked great 😂

Plain language is important for everyone! Think of it as making sure someone not native to the language could understand.

Because that's what you are doing when you use complex language--you're making it so that people who are not "native speakers" to your jargon cannot understand.

Use 2 cent words, not $1000 words.