ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Over the past several decades, plain-language advocates around the world have urged people writing for audiences of consumers and citizens to use plain language. The Federal Aviation Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Agriculture are among US government agencies with the strongest plain-language programs. Steinberg writes that plain language 'reflects the interests and needs of the reader and the consumer rather than the legal, bureaucratic, or technological interests of the writer or the organization the writer represents'. Concern for plain language has often focused on documents produced by government agencies, but it now extends to law, health and medicine, and many aspects of business. Kimble identifies important publications that promote the use of plain language by lawyers, judges, and law professors.
