Plain Language Brings (Some) Clarity to Credit Cards

Plain language advocates received a small-but-significant victory this week when the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act became law.

One of the act’s lower-profile reforms is the “plain language in plain sight” requirement:

Creditors will give consumers clear disclosures of account terms before consumers open an account, and clear statements of the activity on consumers’ accounts afterwards …
These disclosures will help consumers make informed choices about using the right financial products and managing their own financial needs.

Let’s hope it reduces the consumer confusion referenced in a recent CNN study: Only 4 of 13 credit card holders could find the annual percentage rate in a five-page card agreement.

For every hopeful sign of plain language progress, however, we see examples of why organization-centric writing seems more prevalent than ever. Last week, a Reuters news story covered the negative effects of computer jargon:

Faced with such gobbledegook, many of the world’s nearly 2 billion Internet users conclude that security is for “experts” and fail to take responsibility for the security of their own patch of cyberspace—a potentially costly mistake.

The story notes that the computer security industry is plagued by a “lack of clarity in everything from instruction manuals and systems design to professional training.” Plain language and consumer education were cited as tactics to reduce the risk.

Ironically, on the same day I read the Reuters story, one of my RSS feeds had a link to Microsoft’s Resources to Decode Technical Jargon. It boasts that their resources and links will help you “start talking like a pro.”

Despite Microsoft’s best intentions to help computer users, it reminds us that jargon always create barriers. If your audiences need glossaries to understand basic terms and complete common tasks, it’s a sure sign your industry (or organization) needs a plain-language makeover.