Yeah, and I was thinking again about what I'd said earlier about Death By Committee, meaning that something like that is usually an ongoing document and maybe once upon a time when it was only fifty pages it was prepared in a comprehensive way where, you know, you could refer to--the pieces that you needed were logical according to what you needed to know. But then people come in over time and um, what you said about writing things too ambiguously by putting them too simply.

I mean another thing that needs to happen--and this happens with Web sites as well. People think they should just cut and paste something and it will fit with the context, but every once in awhile someone has to look at the piece as a whole, and look at the inconsistencies in the flow of language, look at the inconsistent information, and you know if you think you need to say something in a really broad way, and then nobody understands what it means, you might consider having some kind of, you know, some sort of list of some of the examples of what that situation could be. If the document gets really big, and you're concerned that you really need to use some of the terms for that industry or that agreement, then have a glossary in the back or something, in that case, which also helps someone to navigate the document, and maybe find explanations for some of those pieces that are in the main text.

That's why I asked Janet for an example, to illustrate what she was saying. Thank you Janet for your call. At eleven minutes before the hour it's Michelle Black from the Plain Language Association our guest this afternoon. Who needs a lesson in plain language? [gives out phone numbers again] Denis in Ottawa. Hi, Denis?

Dennis.

Dennis, I'm sorry.

No, not a problem. Um, who needs it? The poor, overworked writers of this world. I used to be a writer myself, and I've done everything from press releases to trademark applications to technical documentation--a lot of marketing materials. And the problem with being a young writer at the bottom of the heap is that you're dealing with a lot of territoriality and egos, political correctness, legal weasel-words--and that's an actual term, by the way--you quickly figure out that the clearest words are almost never the right words, and it's almost easier for you--it's often, not almost always--the right thing not to say anything, as long as you can get it approved. And I actually became a marketing consultant myself because, you know, sitting in a room with a bunch of executive egos, all of them throwing sub-modifiers at me, insisting that I add their particular pet phrase into the document, and then finally coming out with a 150-word, one-sentence mission statement that I was then told to put on the front page of the Web site as the corporate statement of who we were. So, it's a very, very difficult thing. So I would just not take credit for the original one in that case.

Well, I guess that's another one of Death By Committee.

Absolutely! For sure.

Thanks Denis for your call. Anything to add Michelle?