8. A possible new position for plain language

Plain language is a movement no more. The legal profession has known this for some time. However, in the minds of key decision-makers in business and government, plain language is too often still seen as a movement. We need to remedy that by repositioning plain language in the minds of those decision-makers. It's worth doing because those people bare responsibility for enabling plain language to be implemented—and plain language has benefits for all.

Progress depends on plain language acknowledging its success and how that success has changed it. But what position should plain language seek to occupy?

As a threshold issue, we need to establish the aim of the repositioning. I suggest that the aim is to further deliver the social and economic benefits of plain language:

• to a wider audience of consumers and readers of documents; and

• to a greater number of the organizations that rely on documents to administer and manage their operations.

(It's purely a side benefit that businesses like mine may be able to grow as a result of the increased success of plain language. Oh yes, purely a side benefit.)

The repositioning might start with clarifying how we conceive plainlanguage. Let's start the clarification process with the documents, where it all begins.

I see the documents that an organization—whether a business, a government body, or a law firm—produces and relies on as forming the "voice of the organization's brand". For that statement to make sense, we need to think about two things: "voice" and "brand". Let's think about voice first.