Plain Language in public archives: mapping NARA's performance

Abstract

Writing in plain language means writing clearly. Present in several countries for decades, Plain Language is a social movement for the right of access to information and a writing technique for clear and effective communication. Using Simple Language to transmit information in a simple and objective way, facilitating understanding, brings very concrete benefits to the citizen and the public administration: it saves time and money, streamlines processes, increases productivity, strengthens confidence in the public sector and, mainly, increases citizen participation. A series of guidelines for writing and organizing information has been designed so that the reader can easily find what they are looking for, understand what they have found and use the information and the Archives can also contribute with their expertise. Plain Language came to the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) as a reflection of the Plain Writ Act/2010 and started to demand that federal government agencies have a clear communication with the public. The purpose of this article is to map NARA's actions in implementing the Plain Language policy in records. To achieve the proposed objective, a bibliographic search was carried out on the NARA website, complemented with literature on the subject. It was found that NARA carries out several actions within the archival policy related to Plain Language, for being an agency and for the position it occupies in the administrative structure, within the public information and government communication policy. The adoption of strategies for compliance with the law, the review of policies and guidelines for the adequacy of federal records, the development of tools to improve the quality of communications, are some examples of these actions. There is still no theoretical body on the forms and strategies of Plain Language in Public Archives, as it is a relatively new phenomenon. The results presented contribute to a vision of Plain Language practices that can be carried out within the scope of Public Archives and indicate how this theme can be applied by information professionals and governments.