“The Ontario Records Council estimates the government has about 83,000 forms. They cost $29 million to print and $2 billion to process. Processing costs are high because 80% of public forms are filled out incorrectly. It costs 10 times more to process forms completed with errors.”^{Footnote 4}

“Since the British government began its review of forms in 1982, it has scrapped 27,000 forms, redesigned 41,000 forms, and saved over $28,000,000.”^{Footnote 5}

A study carried out in a financial services company called Banco showed that using plain language versions of their documents improved employee productivity by 36.9%, decreased employee errors by 77.1%, and decreased the frequency of calls to the help desk by 17.4%.^{Footnote 6}

Time saved
Plain language saves time, which also saves money. Busy people do not have time to read poorly written documents. Instead of grinding through something that is long and confusing, people appreciate concise and clearly written materials.

Lies prevented
When you use plain language, you can’t befuddle people with untruths or half-truths. Plain language is open and doesn’t hide behind a screen of difficult words.

As Dale Spender, in her classic book Man Made Language (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980), put it, “Language is not neutral. It is not merely a vehicle which carries ideas. It is itself a shaper of ideas.”

Some expensive communication bloopers
Plain language saves costly mistakes. Here are some examples^{Footnote 7} of where big money could have been saved with better writing.

Computer manufacturer Coleco lost $35 million in a single quarter in 1983—and eventually went out of business—when customers purchased its new Adam line of computers, found the instruction manuals unreadable, and rushed to return their computers.

A nuclear plant supervisor ordered ‘ten foot long lengths’ of radioactive materials. Instead of getting the ten-foot lengths it needed, the plant received ten one-foot lengths, at a cost so great it was later classified [as secret].