Well, all thats just fine but . . .

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Well, all thats just fine but . . .
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When the Public Says Huh?Writing to Improve
Understanding

• EPA Region 5s Experience
• Bri Bill
• Community Involvement Coordinator
• EPA Region 5
• Chicago

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Our Workgroup Product Improvement Posse

• Charged with figuring out how to improve office
  products
• Started by looking at site fact sheets . . .
  something we produce a lot of

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What did we find?

• Lots of inconsistencies in
• Look
• Content
• Even logos
• Numerous errors
• Too technical
• Lack of focus
• What EPA wants to tell versus what residents want
  to know

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Why Do We Need to Do a Better Job?

• Poor quality work makes us look unprofessional,
  incompetent
• And, it does a poor job of informing the public
• We waste resources
• Contractors dealing with moving target

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Why Do We Need to Do a Better Job?

• There are rules Product review is the biggie
  it applies to us and to everyone else
• Our office is lead for implementing HQ policy in
  region
• Hard to do when we dont follow the rules
  ourselves
• Pilot
• Lots of other rules, too about printing,
  mailing, color, language, etc.

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What Is Our Desired State?

• Everything should be good
• Everything should be consistent

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Everything Should Be Good

• Well written and grammatical
• Well designed
• Accurate
• Complete Is everything that should be in the
  product in the product? Whats missing?
• Appropriate Should everything in the product be
  in the product? Should we be doing this at all?

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Everything Should Be Consistent

• Should look the same
• Should be written the same
• Why?
• Professional appearance both for individual
  pieces and across all of them
• Most orgs have policies and guidelines
• Easier for the public they become familiar with
  how we do things
• Easier for us why waste time recreating the
  wheel?

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The Plan

• How do we get to our desired state?

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The Plan Step 1

• Set some standards What is a good product?

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Step 1 Set Some Standards

• Headlines that tell a story
• Easy to read and standard font for text and
  titles
• Serif for text sans serif for titles
• 11 point for text, 13 for most titles
• Not burying the lead
• Important stuff up front
• Good, well-labeled maps not auto-cad maps from
  the technical documents

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Step 1 Standards, cont.

• Headlines that tell a story . . .
• EPA Begins Ground Water Sampling in
  Neighborhood
• NOT
• Site Update RIFS or Fact Sheet

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Step 1 Standards, cont.

• Dont bury the lead . . .

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This . . .

• Ground water contaminated by the old dump will
  be cleaned by natural processes under a plan
  proposed by EPA.

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Or this

• EPA plans to allow natural processes to clean up
  the ground water polluted by the old dump.

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But definitely not . . .

• This fact sheet discusses the cleanup
  alternatives under consideration by EPA for
  addressing contamination associated with the Your
  Town Landfill. CERCLA requires that EPA recommend
  one alternative based on an evaluation of nine
  regulatory criteria, blah, blah,blah

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Step 1 Standards, cont.

• Simple, well-labeled maps . . .

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This . . .
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Not . . .
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The Plan Step 2

• Help everyone produce good products

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Step 2 Help Everyone

• Tools
• Standard Operating Procedures
• Templates
• Fact Sheets done
• Next project - advertisements
• AP Stylebook
• Regional style guide to supplement AP Stylebook

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Step 2 Tools

• Standard Operating Procedures
• Review process
• Technical
• Legal
• Editorial
• Templates
• Tips and guidelines

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Step 2 Tools, cont.

• Templates
• Layout front, back covers in between
• Style tips Fonts, logos, what to put where
• Researched HQ guidelines, Stableford, other
  resources re spacing, font size, etc.

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Step 2 Tools, cont.

• Associated Press style guide everybody has a
  copy

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Step 2 Tools, cont.

• Region 5 Style Guide
• Fills gaps in AP Style Guide
• Ground water vs groundwater
• Defines common technical terms in easy to read
  language
• Tips for getting around jargon, i.e., interim
  remedial measures

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Step 2 Tools, cont.

• Training
• Write It Easy To Read, for example
• How to use the AP Stylebook and other references
• People helping people
• Weve got writers!
• Weve got designers!
• Management talking to management

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The Plan Step 3

• Quality Assurance

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Step 3 Quality Assurance

• Technical, legal sign-off
• An editor, focusing on style, grammar, etc.,
  edits everything
• In-house fact sheet advisor mentors the editors
  on content stuff (for a few months)
• Section chief gives final stamp of approval

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The Reality. . .

• Successes
• More history with Superfund program
• Engaging technical staff in finding simpler
  language
• Addressing the road blocks

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Why should EPA dumb it down?

• We dont dumb down, we explain.
• 20 read at or below 8th grade level
• Most read 3-4 levels below highest level of
  education
• Motivation must be there
• We translate
• EPA and technical words like a foreign language
• Context important
• Does public need to understand? Then teach!

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Why has it become our problem that the public
cant read better?

• As public servants, it has always been our
  responsibility to serve all members of the
  public, not just those who read well.

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But we need those legal terms in there!

• Why, why, why?
• Is it our purpose to inform, intimidate or
  obfuscate?

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You are making what we do look stupid!

• Not trying to wreck your good work
• Instead, trying to get people to understand all
  the good work youve done!

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Road blocks youve run into?