Happy Thought for 28 October 2022

Have a Happy Thought:

 I love that I’ve been doing this for long enough that I can bring you this wonderful annual event for the third time (I apparently missed 2020 – did anything else happen that year that might have distracted me?)

 

Yep, that’s right:

The finalists for the 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced!

Here are some of my favourites (there are 42 finalists in total, so go check out the rest):

 

Image: Alex Cooper, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com

  

Image: Alex Pansier, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com

 

Image: Arshdeep Singh, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com

 

Image: Andrew Peacock, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com

 

Image: Jennifer Hadley, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com

 

Image: Miroslav Srb, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com

 

Image: Thomas Vijayan, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com

 

 

 

And one last thought: Plain Language bills are happening around the English-speaking world . This is where governments try to not write like governments, so that we the people don’t have to learn bureaucratese just to exist.

 

Sometimes, though, the urge to use bureaucratic language (or, we would be told, the need for specificity in language) is just too strong.

 

Here’s an example of changes to a government bill requiring plain language in government documents. Have a look and consider whether the changes make this more, or less, easy to read.

 

The purpose of this Act is to improve the effectiveness and accountability of the public service by requiring their communications to be clear and accessible to the public. public service agencies and Crown agents, and to improve the accessibility of certain documents that they make available to the public, by providing for those documents to use language that is—

(a) appropriate to the intended audience; and

(b) clear, concise, and well organised.

 

plain language means language that—

(a) the intended reader can easily understand after 1 reading; and

(b) is clear, concise, and well-organised, and follows recognised guidelines of plain language writing

 

In this Act, plain language means language that is—

(a) appropriate to the intended audience; and

(b) clear, concise, and well organised.

 

From <https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/member/2021/0070/latest/whole.html#DLM4357620>

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