50% of adults find official documents difficult to understand

The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) have revealed that in their polls, half of adults in Ireland find official documents difficult to understand.

NALA are encouraging businesses to cut down on the overly-technical waffle used in many official documents, and thus are announced details of its 2016 Plain English Awards which is now open for entries to combat the overuse of overly-complicated jargon.

Pictured are RTE radio presenter and Plain English Awards judge John Murray, Inez Bailey, CEO, the National Adult Literacy Agency and Declan Black, Managing Partner, Mason Hayes & Curran.Picture by Shane O’Neill Photography.

This year NALA is encouraging businesses and organisations from different sectors (Financial, Health, Regulatory and Public Sector) to submit documents that they think are outstanding examples of plain English. An independent panel of plain English experts, including RTE radio presenter John Murray, will judge the entries and decide on the winners in each category.

Speaking about the awards, Inez Bailey, CEO, NALA, said: “Plain English is very important for organisations and businesses as they can deliver a better service while saving time and money by not having to clarify misunderstandings with the public. We developed these awards as we want to publicly acknowledge organisations that choose to communicate in plain English.”