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1997 is the 21st birthday of the plain English movement in Australia.
In August 1976, the NRMA released the first plain English document in this country. It was a car insurance policy which used readable English instead of old-style legalese. The following year, the NSW Real Estate Institute released a residential tenancy agreement in plain English.
The Australian government gave its full support to the growing plain English movement in 1983, when it introduced the Plain English and Simpler Forms Program. In 1990, International Literacy Year, the government launched several initiatives to promote the use of plain English in all sectors.
In 1991, the Centre for Plain Legal Language was established at the University of Sydney. One of the few organisations in the world devoted to researching the use of plain English, the centre promoted the use of plain language in all legal and administrative documents.
In 1993, the federal Attorney-General's Department began the Corporations Law Simplification Program. The program (now run by the Department of the Treasury) aims to improve the language, layout and structure of the Corporations Law which governs all Australian companies -- and which was widely criticised for being excessively long, complex and inconsistent. Two other projects in the legal field are the Legislation Redesign Project, an investigation of the layout of legislation undertaken in the Commonwealth and NSW Parliamentary Counsel Offices, and the Taxation Law Improvement Project.
In 1996, the National Board of Employment, Education and Training published Putting it Plainly. Produced by the Australian Language and Literacy Council, the report covers plain English policy and practice in the public and private sectors.
Since it began 21 years ago, the plain English movement in Australia has really come of age, as private, public and community sector organisations realise the importance of clear communications.
The drive for plain language is a major international movement. The American, Canadian and British governments have plain language policies -- as do the governments of many non-English speaking countries.
In the United States of America, public attention focused on plain English in 1971, when the American National Council of Teachers of English formed a Committee on Public Doublespeak.
The first plain English documents started appearing in America in 1975. The movement gained wider support in 1978 when President Carter announced that the public needed federal regulations which were easy to understand.
Many US states have written legislative drafting manuals to encourage the use of plain legal language.
From 1971, the Law Reform Commission of Canada began reviewing all federal laws and publishing recommendations for improvements. The commission advocates the use of plain language in drafting legislation.
In 1991, the Canadian government published a manual on plain writing, drawn from the work of 14 federal government departments. In the same year, Saskatchewan became the first province to adopt a government-wide Clear Language Program.
The Plain English Campaign is a grassroots organisation which began in 1979. It was a member of the 1980s review committee on government forms. In 1980, the campaign began its national Plain English Awards.
The British government adopted a formal plain English policy in 1982. The government-funded Civil Service College runs courses on information design and presenting complex information in an easy-to-understand form.
The three organisations profiled in the following case studies are also part of the ongoing plain English story.
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