Contact
Department of Internal Affairs
Government Information Services
Plain language
Make your content easy to understand with plain language.
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Just email the team at info@digital.govt.nz.
Why use plain language
Only 16% of New Zealand adults are considered to have high literacy levels[Footnote 1]. People may also:
- be unfamiliar with the subject matter and related jargon
- have poor computer skills.
Simple words make:
- sentences easier to scan
- content more accessible to a wider range of people, including people whose first language is not English.
Guidelines
The Readability Guidelines include detailed guidelines on the following topics:
- Choose easy and short words not formal, long ones.
- Jargon and buzzwords are unlikely to be clear language.
- Write conversationally, in first person, using the active voice.
- Test your content with users.
And:
- Make your average sentence 15 words long.
- Avoid complex sentence structures.
Tools
Utility links and page information
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