Clarity 2012 presentation draft - Victoria Law …...!"#$%&'()#"&'#%)*#)(+&,-(&.%/(0"1$%)&2(3(#04-&...
Transcript of Clarity 2012 presentation draft - Victoria Law …...!"#$%&'()#"&'#%)*#)(+&,-(&.%/(0"1$%)&2(3(#04-&...
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Karen Schriver, Ph.D.
Plain Legal Language: The Underlying Research
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Overview
! What are typical guidelines from experts in plain legal language?
! Do guidelines for plain legal language have empirical support?
! What aspects of good writing and design do plain legal language guidelines miss?
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Research Process
! Identify typical guidelines for legal writing
! Use my research review as a framework to sort guidelines
! Determine empirical support for guidelines
! Assess coverage and gaps
Expert Advice on Legal Writing
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Guidelines for Plain Legal Writing (randomly ordered :-)
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Omit unnecessary detail.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Order the parts in a logical sequence.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use ample white space—and use it meaningfully. Space should convey structure.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use between 50 and 70 characters per line.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Avoid using capital letters.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use a topic sentence to summarize the main idea of each paragraph or of a series of paragraphs on the same topic.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use a topic sentence to summarize the main idea of each paragraph or of a series of paragraphs on the same topic.
!"#$%&'()#"&'#%)*#)(+&,-(&.%/(0"1$%)&2(3(#04-& 5677687&
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Keep sentences to an average length of about 20 words.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Sentences on average should be short, but it’s also important to vary your style.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Don’t pile up a series of conditions or qualifiers before the main clause. Put them after the subject and verb. Itemize conditions separately if it will help the reader.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Keep the subject near the verb.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Prefer familiar words–usually shorter ones—that are simple and direct and human.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Avoid unnecessary jargon.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use page layout and space to convey the text’s structure.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Adopt a “you” style: use personal pronouns, including we and you.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Avoid multiple negatives.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use informative headings.
!"#$%&'()#"&'#%)*#)(+&,-(&.%/(0"1$%)&2(3(#04-& 5677687&
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Try putting the main headings in the form of a question.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use headings to provide readers with a road map.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Simplify wordy phrases. Watch out for too many prepositional phrases.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use concrete words.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use a readable typeface.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use diagrams, tables, and charts as needed to help explain the text.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use highlighting techniques (itemized lists, boldface, italics, color), but do not over use them.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Set the text using “ragged right” rather than “justified” margins (set with parallel margins).
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Vary the length of paragraphs, but generally keep them short.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Whenever possible, test your document.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
For long documents, make a table of contents.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Know your reader.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use the right tone.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Use contractions to achieve a more conversational tone.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Research Review (1980–2010)
Consolidates 500+ empirical studies
! How people read functional texts
! How reading may be shaped by
– Writing
– Visual design
– Technology
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Interdisciplinary Perspective
! Information design
! Technical communication
! Rhetoric
! Reading & literacy
! Library science
" Cognitive psychology
" Educational psychology
" HCI & human factors
" Psycholinguistics
" Technology studies
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Findings: Writing & Visual Design
Writing – Whole-text level: Verbal
– Sentence-level
– Word-level
Visual Design – Whole-text level: Graphic
– Layout features
– Typographic features
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Whole-text Level: Verbal
! Previews, advance organizers, summaries
! Headings
! Connectives and structural signals
! Organization and genre cues
! Repetition and redundancy
! Grouping and clustering
! Topical structure
! Text density
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Features Characteristics Findings Implications Research
Text Density Ratio of content words to total words Many concepts vs few concepts Amount of modification before nouns Number of words before verb
• Texts with a greater ratio of content words (adjectives, ad- verbs, nouns, verbs) to total words tend to be dense and make remembering the main points more difficult. • Fewer concepts per paragraph are more easily understood than many concepts per paragraph. • The greater the number of adjectives and adverbs before a noun, the more difficult the sentence is to process. • The more words before the verb, the more dense the sentence and the greater the cognitive load.
• Consider the demands that dense text can place on readers and edit for comprehension. • Make text simpler to process by reducing the number of adjectives or adverbs before nouns. • To avoid taxing working memory, reduce the number of words that come before the verb. • Avoid dense paragraphs and strive to reduce the number of inferences readers must make.
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
[1] A. C. Graesser, D. S. McNamara, and M. M. Louwerse, "What do readers need to learn in
order to process coherence relations in narrative and expository texts," in Rethinking reading comprehension, A. P. Sweet and C. E. Snow, Eds., ed NY: Guilford Publications, 2003, pp. 82-98.
[2] G. R. Klare, "Assessing readability," Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 10, pp. 61–102, 1974.
[3] C. A. Perfetti, "Lexical density and phrase structure depth as variables in sentence retention," Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, vol. 8, pp. 719-724, 1969.
[4] M. A. K. Halliday, Spoken and written language, 2nd ed. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
[5] E. W. Dolch, "Fact burden and reading difficulty," Elementary English Review, vol. 16, pp. 135-138, 1939.
[6] W. Kintsch and J. Keenan, "Reading rate and retention as a function of the number of propositions in the base structure of sentences," Cognitive Psychology, vol. 5, pp. 257-274, 1973.
[7] S. Kemper, "Measuring the inference load of a text," Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 75, pp. 391-401, 1983.
[8] J. R. Bormuth, "Development of readability analyses," Office of Education, Bureau of Research, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, DC, Final Report, Project No. 7-0052 Contract No. OEC-3-7-070052-0326, 1969.
[9] J. N. Ure, "Lexical density and register differentiation," in Applications of linguistics: Selected paper of the Second World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Cambridge 1969, G. E. Perren and J. L. M. Trim, Eds., ed London: Cambridge University Press, 1971, pp. 443-452.
[10] D. S. McNamara, M. M. Louwerse, Z. Cai, and A. Graesser. (2005, January 1, September 8, 2006). Coh-Metrix version 2.0. [Report]. Available: http://141.225.14.229/CohMetrixDemo/demo.htm
Example: Text Density
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Sentence-level Features
! Syntax
! Voice
! Anaphora
! Prepositions
! Given-new
! Negatives
! Embedding
! Conditionals
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Word-level Features
! Length
! Frequency
! Complexity
! Concreteness
! Noun strings
! Nominalizations
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Whole-text Level: Graphic
! Visual impression
! Hierarchy
! Grouping
! Proximity
! Lists
! Images
! Repetition
! Contrast
! Density
! Consistency
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Layout Features
! Line length
! Columns
! Whitespace
! Alignment
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Typographic Features
! Typeface (serif versus sans serif)
! Typesize
! Case
! Line-spacing
! Justification (justified or ragged right)
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Sorting the Legal Guidelines
! Raters provided with summary tables of research findings
– six categories from review
! Raters read the 32 guidelines on separate 3x5 cards and sorted them into the six categories
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Results
! Raters agreed (94% of the time)
! Differed on categories for:
– Adopt a “you” style; use personal pronouns
– Use highlighting techniques (lists, boldface, italics, color)
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Legal Writing: Whole-text Guidelines
! Use informative headings.
! Order the parts in a logical sequence. ! Omit unnecessary detail. ! Vary the length of paragraphs, but generally
keep them short.
! Use a topic sentence to summarize the main idea of each paragraph or of a series of paragraphs on the same topic.
! Whenever possible, test your document.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Legal Writing: Whole-text Guidelines
! Use the right tone.
! Try putting the main heading in the form of a question.
! Adopt a “you” style: use personal pronouns, including we and you.
! Know your reader.
! For long documents, make a table of contents.
! Use headings to provide readers with a road map.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Legal Writing: Sentence-level Guidelines
! Keep the subject near the verb.
! Avoid multiple negatives.
! Prefer the active voice.
! Simplify wordy phrases. Watch out for too many prepositional phrases.
! Sentences on average should be short, but it’s also important to vary your style.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Legal Writing: Sentence-level Guidelines
! Keep sentences to an average length of about 20 words.
! Don’t pile up a series of conditions or qualifiers before the main clause. Put them after the subject and verb. Itemize conditions separately if it will help the reader.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Legal Writing: Word-level Guidelines
! Avoid unnecessary jargon.
! Prefer familiar words—usually shorter ones—that are simple and direct and human.
! Use concrete words.
! Use contractions to achieve a more conversational tone.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Legal Writing: Whole-text Graphic Guidelines
! Use diagrams, tables and charts as needed to help explain the text.
! Use highlighting techniques (itemized lists, boldface, italics, color), but do not overuse them.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Legal Writing: Layout Guidelines
! Use ample white space—and use it meaningfully. Space should convey structure.
! Use between 50 and 70 characters per line.
! Use the page layout and space to convey the text’s structure.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Legal Writing: Typographic Guidelines
! Use a readable typeface.
! Avoid using capital letters.
! Set the text using “ragged right” rather than “justified” margins (set with parallel margins).
! Set the point size for the type between 10 and 12 points for body text in printed documents; for online, use 12 to 14 points.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Were the legal writing guidelines supported by research?
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
– Use informative headings.
– Structure a logical sequence.
– Employ topic sentences.
– Test your document.
– Use right tone.
– Frame headings as questions.
– Adopt a “you” style.
– Make a TOC.
– Use headings as roadmaps.
– Know your reader.
– Omit unnecessary detail.
Whole-text Level: Supported by Research
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Whole-text Level: Not Supported by Research
– Vary length of paragraphs.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Sentence-text Level: Supported by Research
– Put subjects near verbs.
– Avoid double negatives.
– Prefer active voice.
– Don’t pile up prepositional phrases.
– Keep sentences to about 20 words.
– Don’t pile up conditionals.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Sentence-text Level: Not Supported by Research
– It’s important to vary your sentence style.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Word-text Level: Supported by Research
– Avoid jargon.
– Choose familiar words.
– Use shorter words.
– Select concrete words.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Word-text Level: Support is “iffy”
– Use contractions.
Conflict between friendly and clear for some audiences
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Whole-text Graphics: Supported by Research
– Use diagrams, tables, and charts.
– Use highlighting techniques.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Layout Guidelines: Supported by Research
– Use whitespace meaningfully.
– Use between 50-70 characters per line.
– Use layout and space to convey structure.
!"#$%&'()#"&'#%)*#)(+&,-(&.%/(0"1$%)&2(3(#04-& 5677687&
9&7:87&;#0(%&<4-0$=(0&&>&&;<?&@ABB*%$4#CA%&D(3$)%&E&2(3(#04-&&>&&F34-0$=(0G(#0H-"$%FI%(H& JK&
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Typographic Guidelines: Supported by Research
– Use a readable typeface.
– Avoid using all capital letters.
– Use ragged right.
– Set the type 10-12 print, 12-14 online.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Coverage and Gaps
! Most guidelines are on writing (72%)
! More attention to graphics needed
! Almost nothing on writing/design of legal materials for the Web
! Little on achieving an appropriate tone
! Some guidelines are too vague
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Omissions in Legal Writing Guidelines
! Research tells us much more than is reflected in legal writing guidelines
Visual impression, hierarchy, grouping, contrast, density, given-new, tabular formats
! More evidence-based guidelines need to be developed
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Summary
! My framework for writing and design research can be applied to legal writing.
! Most legal writing guidelines do have empirical support, but new ones need to be developed.
! Legal texts designed using plain language principles are likely to be read faster, understood better, and preferred.
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
References for Legal Guidelines
Butterick, M. (2010). Typography for lawyers: Essential tools for polished and persuasive documents. Houston, TX: Jones McClure Publishing.
Felsenfeld, C., & Siegel, A. I. (1981). Writing contracts in plain English. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.
Flesch, R. (1979a). The art of readable writing, with the Flesch readability formula (25th Anniversary Edition ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Flesch, R. (1979b). How to write plain English: A book for consumers and lawyers. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Garner, B. A. (2001). Legal writing in plain English: A test with exercises. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kimble, J. (1992). Plain English: A charter for clear writing. Thomas M. Cooley Law Review, 9(1), 1–58.
Kimble, J. (2006). Lifting the fog of legalese: Essays on plain language. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Law Reform Commission of Victoria. (1987). Plain English and the law (Vol. 9). Melbourne, Australia: Law Reform Commission of Victoria.
© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Schriver Refs Schriver, K. A. (1997). Dynamics in document design: Creating texts for
readers. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Schriver, K. A. (2009). Using design to get people to read and keep reading. Health Literacy Out Loud Podcast (HLOL), (Dec. 12). Retrieved from http://www.healthliteracyoutloud.com/?s=schriver
Schriver, K. A. (2010). Reading on the Web: Implications for online information design. Ljubljana Museum of Architecture and Design Lecture Series on Visual Communications Theory: On Information Design. Retrieved from http://videolectures.net/aml2010_schriver_rotw/
Schriver, K. A. (2011). La retórica del rediseño en contextos burocráticos (The rhetoric of redesign in bureaucratic settings). In J. Frascara (Ed.), Information design (pp. 156-165). Buenos Aires: Ediciones Infinito (Available in English from the author at [email protected]).
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© 2012 Karen Schriver | KSA Communication Design & Research
Schriver Refs Schriver, K. A. (2012). What we know about expertise in professional
communication. In V. W. Berninger (Ed.), Past, present, and future contributions of cognitive writing research to cognitive psychology (pp. 275-312). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Schriver, K. A. (forthcoming 2012a). The ebb and flow of plain language in the United States: A brief history from 1940–2012. Technical Report. KSA Communication Design & Research. Pittsburgh, PA.
Schriver, K. A. (forthcoming 2012b). What do technical communicators need to know about information design? In J. Johnson-Eilola & S. Selber (Eds.), Solving problems in technical communication (pp. 495-531). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Schriver, K. A. (in preparation). Information design moves for Web and print: Evidence-based practice. Manuscript in preparation. Pittsburgh, PA.
Thank you!
For more information...
Karen Schriver, PhD
KSA Communication Design & Research
Pittsburgh, PA
412.828.8791
Communication Design & Research