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Yours is not a new refrain Dick - check out the website of the Campaign for
Plain English at http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/law.html for the quote
'In 1936, Fred Rodell, a professor of law at Harvard, argued that there 'are
two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other
is its content. That, I think, about covers the ground.'
The site's more about language than layout but the two are closely related.
There must be a US version of the said campaign, if not you could start one
(I'm assuming that's where you are)!
Paul Newbold
LightWorks Design Ltd
Sheffield UK
-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Margulis [mailto:margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net]
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 1:28 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Tilting at windmills: Doc design vs. lawyers and accountants
Okay, I'm gonna be a good soldier and just do what I'm asked, which is to
edit a few company-specific sections of a document that is otherwise legal
and financial boilerplate and keep my mouth shut about the rest of the
document. And, yes, I know that sometimes making a document readable is the
_last_ thing lawyers and accountants want to do.
But here's my question: Has anyone here had any success at all in persuading
anyone in the legal or accounting profession that THEIR LIVES COULD BE
BETTER if they formatted their documents a little differently? I mean these
guys read miles of text every year that is edge-to-edge 10/12 Times Roman on
8.5-inch-wide paper. Watch them on an airplane sometimes. Often you'll see
them holding their place by running their thumbs down both sides of the
sheet, just to keep track of what line they're reading; their heads swing
side to side because they can't scan that wide a line with their eyes. I
figure they could increase their reading speed 15 to 20 percent just by
using a shorter line length, let alone using a more appropriate font. Think
of it! Less time reading, more time for, oh, I dunno, their families, maybe?
(Yeah, right.)
But whenever I've suggested such a radical thought to any of these guys,
they tell me, no, the format is "standard" and it isn't in our "power" to
change it.
Is this true? Have courts ruled on this? Professional associations? Can't
the courts or professional associations be reached by logical argument?
Can't our academic brethren and sisthren [nonce word; don't look it up] have
a heart-to-heart with their counterparts in the professional faculties about
introducing some modern document design practices?
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TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, July 15-18 in Washington, DC
The Help Technology Conference, August 21-24 in Boston, MA
Details and online registration at http://www.SolutionsEvents.com
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