Plain English Movement Essay

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Jo Allen

Lauren Lusby

Plain English Policy Considerations for KPMG Communications

The Plain English Language (PEL) movement is intended to improve the effectiveness of communications by simplifying them and making them easier to understand by their intended audiences. In modern business and administrative communications, there is a tendency to rely on industry-specific terminology and technical jargon. In many cases, those trends reduce the effectiveness of communications because they undermine comprehensibility by audiences without specific professional or technical training in those areas. Adopting the PEL approach would be beneficial for KPMG because it would greatly improve the effectiveness of communications across the full range of its client spectrum. It would allow KPMG to ensure that it all of its accounting, marketing, consulting, and legal department communications are maximally effective for their intended purpose. If the concept is applied properly, it is expected that PEL will improve productivity, revenue, and client appreciation. Meanwhile, there are virtually no conceivable risks or potential costs or liabilities to adopting PEL beyond the initial training required for its start-up and implementation. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that KPMG adopt PEL on a broad basis.

The Concept and Purpose of the Plain English Language Movement

In principle, the concept of the Plain English Language (PEL) movement is predicated on the observation that many professional industries have developed communication styles that rely too heavily on technical jargon. In many cases, communications generated by professionals are largely incomprehensible to lay audiences without specific professional training or other forms of extensive familiarity with these communications styles. As a result, even the communications initiatives that are expressly intended to be consumed by lay audiences often fail to achieve their primary purpose, simply because they do not lend themselves to ease of comprehension.

The PEL movement provides a practical means of purging professional and government administrative communications of language and styles that detract from their comprehensibility.

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While the concept is often characterized as a means of simplifying communications, that should not be understood in any pejorative sense. More specifically, the simplification of professional communications should not be confused as necessarily meaning that those communications initiatives must be diluted of their substantive content, reduced in quality, rendered less precise, or "dumbed down" in any way.

To the contrary, plain English provides a preferable means of communicating essential information in a manner that renders it more conducive to understanding by its intended audience. This is especially important in connection with the types of communications that constitute the backbone of KPMG client relations. In that regard, one must consider the extent to which (and manner in which) KPMG clients typically rely on information published and otherwise communicated by the firm.

The Relevance of the Plain English Language Concept to KPMG Client Services

The main focus of KPMG client services are Accounting, Consulting, and Marketing. Furthermore, there are important legal and government regulatory components to all of those essential client services. Among other services for which KPMG clients rely on our services are complex analyses pertaining to areas of taxation, financial and regulatory compliance audits, and legal advisory opinions and recommendations. While these distinct areas are very different in some respects, one of the most important aspects of service that this firm provides is essentially identical in all of them: namely, we assist a lay audience better understand the relevance and potential importance and impact of highly technical matters. In that regard, the PEL approach is precisely consistent with our main function in that area. Conversely, to the extent we allow technical language and industry-specific jargon to dominate our client-focused communications, we are not fully accomplishing our goal for our clients.

Accounting and Related Financial Services

Consider that in the realm of Accounting services areas much of our….....

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