Do you ever feel like the instructions for filing your taxes were written by robots? And thank goodness a U.S. passport is good for ten years because the process of renewing one makes me envy an Ikea manual – no words, just pictures. Pretty soon, on October 11, 2011 to be exact, we won’t be subjected to lengthy, incomprehensible government forms thanks to the Plain Writing Act signed into law by President Obama. All new federal government publications, forms and documents must be written in a “clear, concise, well-organized” manner. Yee-haw! Who knew the federal government is on the cutting edge of communications?

Here at Brilliant Ink we’re all about ditching the bland corporate speak and communicating with people as human beings. Why say “commence” when it means the same thing as “begin,” “kick off” or “start”? Or, similarly, if you can communicate your message in 300 words why use 600? The Center for Plain English takes it just as seriously as we do. Their motto, “Plain English is a civil right,” sounds pretty refreshing to me.

You don’t need to wait until October to start writing and speaking in plain English. Try it out! “Heretofore” might not be rolling off your tongue anymore.

Check out more words that we love to hate: http://www.brilliantink.net/blog/2008/10/corporate-speak-is-punishable-by-death-part-1/.