When Nelson Mandela became president in South Africa, he asked for the new constitution to be written in plain language, a task carried out in part by a Canadian lawyer, Phil Knight.^{Footnote 1}

In the USA, Presidents Carter and Clinton both demanded that government documents be written in plain language, although those orders were later revoked under Presidents Reagan and Bush respectively. In March 2006, new legislation on plain language was introduced by the House Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs. Plain-language expert witnesses were called to give testimony about the effectiveness of plain language.

Many US states require that documents be written in plain language.

The Scottish parliament has made a commitment to improve the quality of its written documents. The Mexican government is in the early stages of developing a program. Australia has a strong plain language movement. The city of Bremen, in Germany, has a new translation bureau to provide plain explanations of some of the wordier health warnings, appliance instructions and legal papers.^{Footnote 2} The Irish government’s Department of Education & Science funds a National Adult Literacy Agency, which has sparkplugged the use of plain language in law, business, media and all across Irish society.^{Footnote 3} Even in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai is demanding that government documents should be in plain language.^{Footnote 4}

In Canada
Canada has plain-language writers for both official languages and has seen an enormous growth in the demand for plain language. The following are just a few examples of plain language work being done.

At the federal level, Health Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs and Parks Canada are developing plain language materials. In the 1990s, Revenue Canada began training all its middle managers to use plainer language in written documents.

The current Auditor General of Canada, Sheila Fraser, has promoted the use of plain language.^{Footnote 5} (See p. 18 for a particular example.)

Justice John Gomery, in his report “Who Is Responsible”^{Footnote 6} (itself a title that is unabashedly clear), wrote: “I have tried to write it in plain language that anyone should be able to understand, and to avoid using obscure legal expressions and bureaucratic jargon. I hope it is accessible to everyone….” In this work, he was assisted by plain-language experts