Although we have this strong position, the impact of text revision is limited. Documents reach us late in the process, and normally there is very little time to make all the changes we would like to.

Therefore, we try to influence the drafters to adopt a reader-friendly style to begin with, mainly through training sessions. There are a number of such customized training sessions every year. One training session is designed specifically to the problems of writing government bills, another one to the reports written by the committees.

When it comes to our everyday work, counselling is an important feature. By telephone or e-mail we constantly receive questions on language use, predominantly from the different ministries. The questions span from the smallest detail - like "should there be a capital letter here or not"- to extensive and complicated matters which may require in-depth investigations involving experts from outside the Government Offices.

Helping drafters to help themselves is essential. Therefore, we have put much effort into producing relevant handbooks and guidelines. Although you sometimes meet people who have never heard of these books, it is evident that they are widely used and appreciated. There is one book that tells you how to write accurately in terms of spelling, punctuation, abbreviation etc. One book on how to write on a website. One book on how to write a Government Bill etc.

One of our most well-known guidelines is called the Black List. Here we list a number of words and expressions we consider too archaic or too ambiguous. Next to each expression, we list our suggestions for what they could write instead. We plan to publish a new edition of the Black List next year.

The Plain Swedish Group

Who we are
Law and language are two very different disciplines, which on the one hand are interdependent, and on the other hand conflicting. We believe that law and language ought to go hand in hand. Therefore, we have chosen to bridge the gap between the fields. In the Plain Swedish Group there are representatives of different disciplines, all with their own experiences of the importance of clear language. The group consists of three judges, two linguists, two information managers and two political scientists. The participation of the judges is of utmost importance in our work. They are our plain language ambassadors. Their names and positions make it easier for us to convince other lawyers and put pressure on the directors of the authorities.