{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "How to Tell Your Agency’s Story—Plainly |Digital.gov",
    "description": "How to Tell Your Agency’s Story—Plainly",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/04/16/how-to-tell-your-agencys-story-plainly/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"How to Tell Your Agency’s Story—Plainly","summary" : "You’ve got the right words, the active verbs, the carefully chosen adjectives and adverbs. You’ve got the facts. You’ve got the talking points. All you have to do is put it together, right?","date" : "2014-04-16T10:00:23-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"katherine-spivey" : "Katherine Spivey"},"topics" : {
        
            "communication" : "Communication",
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "plain-language" : "Plain language",
            "social-media" : "Social media"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2014-04-16-how-to-tell-your-agencys-story-plainly.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2014/04/2014-04-16-how-to-tell-your-agencys-story-plainly.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/04/2014-04-16-how-to-tell-your-agencys-story-plainly.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/04/2014-04-16-how-to-tell-your-agencys-story-plainly.md","slug" : "how-to-tell-your-agencys-story-plainly","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/04/16/how-to-tell-your-agencys-story-plainly/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image image-right image-right-legacy\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/04/250-x-167-plain-language-chris2766-iStock-Thinkstock-477440077.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Dictionary definition of the word language, highlighted in pink\"/\u003e\u003cp\u003echris2766, iStock, Thinkstock\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYou’ve got the right words, the active verbs, the carefully chosen adjectives and adverbs. You’ve got the facts. You’ve got the talking points. All you have to do is put it together, right?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWait. What you want to tell people is not necessarily what they need to know.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI know it’s hard to organize material for your reader, but it’s the key to writing in plain language. Besides \u003ca href=\"http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ274/pdf/PLAW-111publ274.pdf\"\u003ebeing the law\u003c/a\u003e, it’s also a best practice and the best way for getting people to read your content.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBecause no one comes to government websites just to read every page, right? Our audience is busy people who want to get an answer to their question \u003cstrong\u003eright now\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere are the top 8 ways to write to get read:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOrganize for your reader\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUse design features such as headers, tables, and bullets\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWrite short sentences and paragraphs\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUse “you,” “we,” and other pronouns\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWrite in active voice, not passive\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEmphasize verbs, not nouns\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUse consistent terms, not jargon or acronyms\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChoose common, everyday words\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKatherine Spivey, Plain Language Launcher and Web Content and Social Media Manager at the General Services Administration (GSA), recently did two webinars for DigitalGov University. In them, she noted that if you write for a government website, you’ll need the top web writing skills from the plain language set — and those who write for an agency’s blog, Facebook, or Twitter account, need to do social media and plain language at the same time.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKatherine Spivey\u003c/strong\u003e is the General Services Administration\u0026rsquo;s Plain Language Launcher and co-chair of the \u003ca href=\"https://digital.gov/communities/plain-language/\"\u003ePlain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}