BRITAIN'S Prime Minister John Major won an unlikely award a year ago: the prize for writing the worst English. It was a signed document on the Irish peace process which won him a tin of rhubarbs (signifying nonsense) from the Plain Language Commission (PLC) of the UK.
"He accepted the award in good spirit," says Martin Cutts, PLC research director, "but he wasn't quite amused." Cutts, 43, has been the bogeyman for gobbledygook for almost 20 years now, besides being part-time journalist-writer and chairman of Words At Work, which offers writing skill courses for bureaucrats. In 1979, he conceived and co-founded the Plain Language Movement in the UK, which has run a relentless campaign for rewriting lengthy, obtuse, archaic texts, from Acts of Parliament to insurance policies and instruction manuals, in language users can comprehend. To make his point, in 1993, he rewrote in simple English Britain's Timeshare Act, 1992, cutting it down to one-fourth its original size.
In India on a tour organised by the British Council, Cutts conducted a workshop organised by Project LARGE (Legal Adjustments and Reforms for Globalising the Economy) at the International Management Institute in Delhi. LARGE is a UNDP project commissioned by the Finance Ministry in 1993 to overhaul India's commercial and economic laws. From May onwards, it will hold workshops on issues ranging from arbitration to trade policy, two of which—insurance and banking—will be conducted by Cutts.
LARGE has redrafted three small Acts and a section of the Civil Procedure Code to illustrate how things can change. Says Amirullah Khan, who has redone the Public Servants (Inquiries) Act and The Fatal Accidents Act, both of 1850, and The Carrier's Act, 1865: "If government reports, circulars and orders are written in such language, common people have to run to lawyers each time a clarification is needed. Often, the lawyers themselves may not follow the gibberish." Adds Bibek Debroy, coordinator: "Section 275 IPC, form no. 33, under which a summons is issued, is one unbroken sentence of 113 words. It can be reduced to 55 words in plain English."
Anyone who has tried to read an LIC policy will agree. Says Cutts: "The first sentence of any policy is a minimum of 150 words and quite unintelligible." The terms and conditions of acceptance of a standard LIC contract is 174 words long. A policyholder's claim could be rejected due to an incomprehensible clause tucked away in the fine print.
Cutts' efforts are now paying off across the world. The UK government has set up a committee to rewrite all tax laws in plain English, at a cost of £26 million. Most UK insurance companies now have the 'Clear English Standard' stamp on their policy
documents. The European Community insists all consumer contract terms be drafted in plain, intelligible language. In the US, the head of the law-making body has signed up with Clarity, a 700-strong body of lawyers who are also plain language activists. Says Cutts: "The Plain English movement is gaining ground in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. If India does not clean up its Acts soon, it'll be out of tune with the rest of the English-speaking world." Cutts will have his hands full with rewriting English in plain English when he returns in July to lend his expertise to Project LARGE as well as work on an Indian edition of his book, Plain English Guide.
