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ClinicalTrials.gov is a database designed to help clinical researchers make their research publicly available. The clinical trials registered on the database each include a brief summary, which is meant to be a short description that the public can easily understand. In September 2022, ClinicalTrials.gov published a "Plain Language Checklist for Lay Brief Summaries" on their website, which identifies plain language best practices intended to help investigators craft summaries that can be readily understood by the public. This thesis assesses the impact of the checklist on the language use in the brief summaries in the year following the checklist's publication. The analysis examines 62 brief summaries for Phase III and IV clinical trials posted on ClinicalTrials.gov between September 26, 2022, and September 26, 2023. It focuses particularly on summaries associated with rheumatoid arthritis, knee replacement, and conjunctivitis to gauge how well they complied with 4 of the 19 criteria on the Plain Language Checklist: keeping sentences and paragraphs short, aiming for a 6th to 8th grade reading level, writing out acronyms on the first use, and providing both percentages and natural frequencies. It also examines rhetorical moves made in the summaries to address the use of jargon, key term definitions, headings, formatted lists, direct research questions, descriptions of study type, sentence fragments, and the placement of the purpose statement to see how these moves affected the plain language. Although the summaries tended to comply with the paragraph length guidelines, they did not comply with the sentence length, reading level, or acronym guidelines. The variation in compliance could be attributed to researchers' lack of awareness of the guidelines, lack of time to devote to creating brief summaries, or being too immersed in the field to imagine the needs of a lay audience. It could also be attributed to the National Institute of Health not enforcing the guidelines or to researchers not viewing the guidelines as being relevant.

Plain language is defined in a variety of ways, but is generally understood to refer to language and design strategies that make texts easier for target audiences to understand and use. Research has helped demonstrate that plain language strategies work, not only to improve reader comprehension, but also to save individuals and organizations time and money. Most plain language research focuses on the outcomes of plain language texts; however, there are a variety of complex processes that happen behind the scenes as these texts are produced. To better understand the complexity of plain language work and the challenges of producing these texts, this dissertation studies plain language using rhetorical and sociolinguistic theories. This framework allows us to see how plain language produces meaning within complex social and cultural contexts. Using the rhetorical triangle as an organizing framework, this dissertation proposes three models of research for studying plain language, each emphasizing a different part of the triangle: readers, writers, and texts.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur begripligheten i Göta hovrätts domar förändrats mellan 2001 och 2021. Studien syftar till att undersöka dels hur syntax och lexikon förändrats i domarna, dels hur följsamheten till klarspråksråd har förändrats under perioden. Materialet består av totalt 18 domar från Göta hovrätt: tre brottmålsdomar och tre tvistemålsdomar vardera från 2001, 2011 och 2021. En kombination av kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod har använts i studien: I den kvantitativa analysen undersöktes syntax och lexikon i samtliga 18 domar och i den kvalitativa textanalysen användes klarspråkstestet för domar som verktyg för att analysera sex av domarna djupare. Resultatet visar att det skett förändringar i domspråket under den tid som undersökts, men att det inte är entydigt huruvida domarna har blivit mer begripliga eller ej. Den kvantitativa analysen visar att domarna i många avseenden ligger längre ifrån klarspråksidealet år 2021 än 2001 och 2011. Resultatet av den kvalitativa analysen visar dock att följsamheten till klarspråksråden förbättrats under den undersökta perioden. Facktermer rensas bort eller förklaras i större utsträckning, det juridiska språket närmar sig det vardagliga och tonen blir mer läsarvänlig. Den sammantagna slutsatsen blir därför att domarna i vissa avseenden blivit mer begripliga och närmat sig idealet, men att ytterligare förbättringar krävs för att de ska bli tillgängliga även för icke juridiskt kunniga läsare. / The purpose of this study is to examine how the comprehensibility of the judgments from Göta Court of Appeal has changed between 2001 and 2021. The study aims to examine how the syntax and terminology has changed within the judgments as well as how the compliance with Plain Language Guidelines has changed during this period. The material consists of 18 judgments from Göta Court of Appeal: three criminal convictions and three civil actions each from the years of 2001, 2011 and 2021.A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods has been used: In the quantitative analysis, syntax and terminology were examined in all eighteen judgments and for the qualitative analysis, Klarspråkstestet (“the plain language test”) was used as a mean to further analyze six of the judgments. The results show that the language has changed during the selected period, but it remains ambiguous whether the language has become more comprehensible or not. The quantitative analysis shows that the judgments lie further away from the Plain Language Ideal in 2021 than they did in 2001 and 2011. However, the results of the qualitative analysis show that the compliance with Plain Language Guidelines has improved during this period. Technical terms are removed or explained to a greater extent, the legalese is approaching the everyday language and the tone is becoming more reader friendly. The conclusion is therefore that in some respects, the judgments have become more comprehensible, but that further improvements are required to make them accessible for readers who do not have a clear understanding of judicial language.

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.

Rezension zu Ursula Bredel, Christiane Maaß: Leichte Sprache. Theoretische Grundlagen. Orientierung für die Praxis. Dudenverlag. Bibliographisches Institut GmbH. Berlin. 2016. ISBN 978-3-411-91178-3

Today's technical communicators enjoy an increasingly broader role and influence in the workplace, and are often given latitude to use engaging rhetoric and personal touches in many kinds of communications. Historical documents, particularly those that are substantially removed from our own era, can offer fresh approaches and insight into the enduring elements of successful communication. This study explores the technical writings of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and considers their usefulness to professionals today. Although the political writing of Franklin and Jefferson is more familiar, both men frequently wrote about scientific and technical subjects and were well-known in their day for these documents. Franklin created a captivating persona and arguments which carried emotional and logical appeal. Jefferson was a student of ancient rhetoric and applied classical principles of arrangement to guide readers. His fondness for statistical records led to a skill in presenting numerical data and other types of information in creative, efficient ways. By using tone, language, and description, both Franklin and Jefferson created technical narratives that are equally informative and aesthetically pleasing. The contemporary era of technical communication has been shaped by positivism, the plain language movement, and humanism, among other significant trends. Franklin's and Jefferson's approaches to technical communication both support and challenge the guiding philosophies of these movements. Their styles are reviewed in this study against the context of modern approaches. Opportunities for further historical study are also offered, including additional writings of our Founding Fathers and technical writing from the turn of the twentieth century.

The purpose of this essay has been to study the comprehensibility and the plainness of chapter 1 and 2 in “Läroplan, examensmål och gymnasiegemensamma ämnen för gymnasieskola 2011” that is one of the governing documents of Swedish upper secondary school. The Swedish government approved a national language policy in 2005 which involved an aim that the official Swedish language would be refined, easy and comprehensible. Plain language has since the eighties had a prominent place in Swedish research and science and is now a thought-out principle at almost every public authority. This essay has performed a linguistic text analysis, a plain language analysis, a plain language test and a critical discourse analysis on the two chapters from “Läroplan, examensmål och gymnasiegemensamma ämnen för gymnasieskola 2011” that is common for all upper secondary school programs. The chapters are not written in plain language and the comprehensibility of the document is low. There is no usage of a personal pronoun which makes the text harder to read, there are plenty of words that are hard to understand or old-fashioned. The usage of technical terms is also a problem due to the fact that no additional explanations to the terms are being offered. All citizens in Sweden need to be able to read and understand the governing documents of school at some time in their life and it is therefore very disturbing that the document is written in such a way that only a few can read and understand the text in full. This also renders the implementation more difficult and the consequence might be that we have an education that is not equivalent for all. The non-usage of plain language also makes it easier for the elite and more difficult for the non-elite which could help increase the social rifts and bring us back to a class society with huge rifts between classes. The usage of plain language increases democracy and the trust in public authorities; it would therefore have been desirable that the “Läroplan, examensmål och gymnasiegemensamma ämnen för gymnasiskola 2011” had been written in plain language.

Hypotheses on the efficiency of evidence-based printed materials can be directed by health communication concepts. These concepts can provide a general framework that goes beyond the traditional vulgarization point of view: instead, it points towards a strategy to obtain health outcomes and provoke behavior change, from a disease prevention, management and health promotion perspective. The present study proposes a comprehensive framework based on concepts from health risk communication, Tarde's theory of social values, usability, readability and plain language. Using the mapping approach, an evaluation grid was applied to printed evidence-based materials with proven effectiveness, in order to reveal the underlying strategy and isolate the characteristics of effective materials. The results allowed us to define two types of printed evidence-based materials, according to the robustness of the evidence they contain and the target audience. It was also possible to identify indicators of notions that are translated into operationalized items, frequent in those materials that might be responsible for their efficiency: clear purpose of the documents, limited scope, learning motivation and correspondence to the logic, experience and language of readers. Effectiveness of printed evidence-based materials could also be correlated to numeracy, objectiveness, standard definitions, constant timeframes and denominators, risks enumerated in order of importance, effective response, and high degree of threat, urgency, novelty and visibility of the disease. It was also possible to identify some missing communication concepts: cultural diversity, narrative, increased easiness of procedures and aesthetic advantage for the patient. In the process of work, the theory of social values emerged as a dynamic component that can bring together and explain many concepts, as well as physician’s acceptance of the guidelines. Value in terms of usefulness and truth plays a major role in cognitive appreciation of the documents. This concept gives a strategic meaning to the whole work and allows us to better understand attitude and behavior change.