This paper recognizes that critics of the "plain language movement" point out that what is "plain" to one audience may mystify and confuse another. It adds that questions such as "Plain language for whom?" and "How can we know whether a text is written in plain language?" raise legitimate concerns about the…

Evaluates the reader-protocol method of teaching writers to anticipate readers' comprehension needs. Involves asking writers to predict readers' problems with a text and providing them with reader responses. Finds that writers taught with the reader-protocol method improved more than writers in control classes, and increased in their ability to…

Arguing that writers must be able to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the texts they produce, this paper begins by isolating some of the persistent questions raised by people in education, business, and government who want to judge how well their texts are working. The paper then compares the cognitive processes involved in "reading…

A study explored how teenage audiences interpreted brochures intended to discourage them from taking drugs, and more broadly, how readers respond to the visual and verbal messages presented through brochures that aim to inform and persuade. Over 100 brochures and handouts from national and local drug prevention agencies were collected. A subset of…