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The aim of this study is to learn about and demonstrate the process in which Försäkringskassan (The Swedish Social Insurance Agency) customizes texts and the texts linguistics influence on a potential beneficiary. I use three different questions to fulfill the purpose of the study. I examine what the manuals writers of Försäkringskassan use say about the issues of sentence length, addressing the beneficiaries and wording – three language features that represent different perspectives within plain language research. Furthermore, I examine how decision texts are created and tailored for its beneficiary group and how the language in decisions is perceived by potential beneficiaries. The study’s main method is a case study, which is composed of three data collection methods – comparative text analysis, unstructured interview and survey analysis. The purpose with the different data collection methods is to produce a variety of data that can be discussed in relation to previous research in areas relevant to the purpose of this study. The manuals used by the social insurance staff seem to have a peripheral position on the issue of sentence length, although the survey respondents are expressing criticism towards too long or too short sentences. The study shows that Försäkringskassans decision process is effective, since decisions are created through collaboration of language experts, lawyers and insurance specialists – a collaboration which has also been praised by Språkrådet. However, certain problems arise with the legal language and in some cases Försäkringskassan have to resign themselves to use words and concepts that cannot be described as plain language. The study also demonstrates the need of continuous text reviewing, since the texts should follow current research in plain language and Föräkringskassans guidelines. The fact that Försäkringskassans role as a text transmitter affect the perception of language and content is clear due to results of the survey, a fact which is also supported by previous research. How language is perceived by a beneficiary depends both on the recipient's background knowledge and by his or her attitude towards Försäkringskassan as a text sender.

This is a thesis on information design with a focus on text design. The purpose of this study is to gather knowledge about how information on the Easy-to-Read website, of the police, should be composed so that immigrants more easily will be able to read and understand the content. The goal of the study is to present a design proposal based on the knowledge that has been found through principles for readability, theoretical perspectives and literature, together with methods; readability analysis and interviews. The interviews were performed individually with the coordinator at polisen.se as well as four students from SFI (Swedish for immigrants).   The study showed that the content on the website of the police is not adequately adapted to the needs of the target group. It also exhibited that the website's disposition is unclear, and that complicated terms are not explained. This makes the understandability worse for immigrants as their difficulties with reading mostly have to do with vocabulary, background knowledge and textual proficiency is culturally limited. / Detta är ett examensarbete i Informationsdesign med inriktning mot textdesign. Syftet med denna studie är att få kunskap om hur information på polisens lättlästa webbplats ska utformas för att nyanlända svenskar lättare ska kunna läsa och förstå innehållet. Målet med studien är att presentera ett gestaltningsförslag grundat på den kunskap som framkommit genom principer för lättläst, teoretiska perspektiv och litteratur, samt metoder; läsbarhetsanalys och intervjuer. Intervjuerna skedde individuellt och genomfördes med samordnaren på polisen.se samt fyra elever från sfi.   Det framgick i studien att innehållet, på polisens lättlästa webbplats, inte är anpassat efter målgruppens behov. Det framkom bland annat att webbplatsens disposition är otydlig, och att komplicerade begrepp inte förklaras. Detta försvårar förståelsen för nyanlända svenskar då deras lässvårigheter framförallt har att göra med att deras ordförråd, bakgrundskunskaper och textkompetens, är kulturellt begränsade.

This study was performed in Eskilstuna, Sweden in the spring of 2011. The Sörmland CountyCouncil (SCC) initiated the study to improve the communication with the public by adjustingthe language on its website. The website is an important communicative tool since manypeople search for health care information online. Thirty-six terms on the website of the SCCwere the objects of study, a majority of them being names of the departments atMälarsjukhuset Hospital. The departments are presented as a list of links on the website. Fouradditional medical terms were included. The comprehension of the 36 terms was investigatedamong 210 health care centre visitors in Eskilstuna. A questionnaire was used where theinformants were asked to shortly explain what health care issues are dealt with in the differentdepartments. The understanding varied greatly among the terms, from Klinisk fysiologi ochnukleärmedicin (clinical physiology and nuclear medicine/Clinical physics and nuclearmedicine) which only 14.6% of the informants understood to Ögon (eyes/Ophthalmology)which was understood by 92.98%. Seven of the terms were understood by less than 50% ofthe informants. The recommendation of the study to the SCC was to replace terms that werehard to understand to direct the website visitors to the information they are looking for andalso to review the language in all written communication with this study in mind.