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Agency Websites Found to Be More Jargon-Filled Today Than 5 Years Ago
Geological Survey and Mint score best for plain writing in study from Web content analysis firm.
The U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Mint topped rankings of 30 federal agency websites for readable, concise and orderly writing released on Tuesday.
The study, the second in five years from the editorial software maker VisibleThread, concluded that “federal agency website communication is worse today than it was five years ago.” Agencies with format compliance departments ranked lower on average, “likely resulting in higher costs due to poor writing practices.”
The agencies with the lowest rankings were components within the Agriculture, Justice (the FBI), and Health and Human Services departments. Agriculture’s “Natural Resources Conservation Service dropped 13 places to rank 25th overall in the 2016 Index – no other agency fell further,” the analysts said. “All Department of Justice agencies included decreased in rank and appeared in the bottom half of both 2011 and the 2016 rankings.”
Bright spots the analysts cited included the Smithsonian, which placed third, the Interior Department (fourth), the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau (tied for 5th). Within the struggling HHS, the report said, are highly readable websites at the Centers for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute.
The rankings measured general readability, complexity, long sentences and avoidance of passive voice. The 2010 Plain Language Act require agencies to seek improvements in writing products long deemed too jargon-filled, bureaucratic or badly organized for the intended user.
“While leaders positioned the law as a consumer victory, the act benefits the government, too,” VisibleThread said. “Specifically, the law would help the federal government increase revenues and avoid unnecessary costs. Clear writing helps government agencies accomplish two goals: Improve engagement and compliance: essentially, when more people understand what you want them to do they are more likely to do it.”
A broader study of agency-selected documents of all types is released regularly by the nonprofit Center for Plain Language, which has tended to show more agencies improving.