NEWS Clear, concise, organised and approrpriate writing for the intended audience has its own day – The International Plain Language Day – which is celebrated worldwide on October 13. Since 2009, Sweden has a Language Act aimed at the public sector. The Language Act includes a so-called plain language clause.
ImageMattias Pettersson, © Mattias Pettersson, Umeå universitet
"Plain language is important in a democracy because everyone has the right to understand their own rights – for example, how to appeal a court decision or how to access social security benefits", says Jonas Carlquist, professor at the Department of Language Studies.
The Swedish Language Act regulates the status of Swedish and other languages in Sweden. The so-called plain language section states that "The language used in the public sector shall be clear, simple and comprehensible" (vårdat, enkelt och begripligt).
Authorities should express themselves in a comprehensible way, while not simplifying anything by removing information.
"Authorities should express themselves in a comprehensible way, while not simplifying anything by removing information – everyone who is affected by what is communicated has the right to understand. The importance of this is particularly evident in crisis situations, such as during the pandemic, when people must act for their own safety and the safety of others."
The first guidelines for language in laws and regulations were published by the Prime Minister's Office in 1967, and since then much has happened: in the early 1980s the Government appointed Språkvårdsutredningen (the Language Care Commission) to review the language care activities of public authorities. The Svea Court of Appeal also published a publication to make court lawyers aware of language issues.
"Historically, authorities have written in such a way as to disclaim responsibility – it is up to the individual to understand what is written."
The importance of this is particularly evident in crisis situations when people must act for their own safety and the safety of others.
The work leading up to the Language Act continues in the 1990s, including the publication of the first edition of Myndigheternas skrivregler (the Authorities' Writing Rules) and the appointment of Klarspråksgruppen (the Plain Language Group) by the Government.
In 2006, a new authority with a mission to build, collect and disseminate knowledge about Sweden’s language and culture was established: the Institute for Languages and Folklore (Isof), which was given responsibility for plain language work in Sweden.
"Machine translation is a challenge that risks making texts unnecessarily complicated. Translations made by humans are expensive, but text documents in, for example, French and German that are machine translated into Swedish requires editing by a human to make them easy to read."
Jonas Carlquist is Professor of Nordic Languages at the Department of Language Studies. His research has included medieval texts but also modern text types, for example in computer games and web texts. He was a teacher at the Language Consultant Programme (Språkkonsultprogrammet) at Stockholm University, and was one of the initiators of the Language Consultant Programme (Språkkonsultprogrammet) at Umeå University that ran from 2006 to 2014.
