With time, they become comfortable in the situation and better at saying what they don’t understand. They also become braver about suggesting better words. They learn that it is the document we are testing, not them.

Interestingly, as they become better at translating, their reading usually improves, so it is also a good idea to bring in new people from time to time. This improvement in reading has been an exciting side-effect of plain-language work.

Translators gain confidence in themselves, too. They know that when they say they don’t understand something, they are helping many, many others who would otherwise also struggle with the words.

Testing with ESL speakers
It is also important to test materials for people who are learning to speak English. For this audience, though, it is not so necessary to have small teams or to work repeatedly with the same translators. I have worked with larger groups and even entire ESL classes. The participants bounce ideas off each other and sometimes can raise questions about topics that may be so familiar to us that we have not seen the difficulties. Even the most ordinary of terms, may be unfamiliar, like the famous two-by-four we saw in chapter 3 on jargon.

I also find that I can just ask an ESL group if they understand something without always requiring them to explain meanings. These sessions can be a lot of fun and very helpful for both writer and participants. An inclusive approach is by far the most effective way to create information materials which are useful to these readers.