[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 171 (Tuesday, November 6, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13985-S13986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PLAIN LANGUAGE IN GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS ACT

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the need to 
write government documents in plain language.
  This past Sunday, November 4, 2007, the Washington Post ran an 
article entitled ``Parsing the Fine Print in Federal Ads.'' This 
article illustrates exactly why the Federal Government must begin 
writing in language that the American people can understand.
  The Federal Government has a pressing need to recruit skilled 
employees. Many agencies are understaffed, and more than 50 percent of 
the Federal workforce will be eligible to retire in the next 5 years. 
Yet advertisements for Federal jobs are described as 
``incomprehensible,'' ``opaque,'' ``dense,'' and ``convoluted.'' The 
article quotes two different people who have written entire books about 
applying for Federal jobs, one of whom states that understanding a 
Federal job announcement can take hours and likens the process to 
explicating a poem in English class.
  It is well known that the Federal hiring process is lengthy and 
complex. Agencies need to look for ways to streamline and improve the 
hiring process, especially now that the Federal government is facing a 
large number of retirements. One easy step that agencies can take is to 
write announcements in plain language.
  Writing Federal job announcements in plain language would save 
applicants considerable time and energy spent attempting to figure out 
what a job advertisement means. Plain, clear, accessible ads are much 
more likely to attract candidates' attention than opaque and 
incomprehensible ones. By writing job ads in plain language, agencies 
likely would attract more candidates with strong qualifications, which 
would go a long way toward addressing the Federal Government's human 
capital challenges.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Plain Language in Government 
Communications Act of 2007, S. 2291, and I ask unanimous consent that 
the article from the Washington Post be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, Nov. 4, 2007]

                 Parsing the Fine Print on Federal Ads

                        (By Mary Ellen Slayter)

       Uncle Sam really does want you, even though at times it can 
     be hard to figure out what exactly he wants you to do.
       Federal job ads can seem particularly opaque to people 
     looking to make the switch from the private sector. Or as one 
     wannabe fed put it in my online chat recently: ``What gives 
     with USAJobs.com? The job descriptions on that site are 
     incomprehensible to a person (like me) who hasn't worked for 
     a government agency before. Seriously, they don't make any 
     sense.''
       ``The federal application process is complex to say the 
     least,'' said Dennis Damp, author of The Book of U.S. 
     Government Jobs'' and a retired senior manager for the 
     Federal Aviation Administration. Part of that is for good 
     reason, he said; the process is designed to be fair, judging 
     applicants on the basis of their qualifications, without 
     discrimination or nepotism.
       Even when you agree that those are commendable goals, the 
     process can be exasperating. But those frustrations can be 
     overcome with a little patience--and by making that seemingly 
     dense job ad work for you.
       Damp's book devotes a chapter to analyzing the job 
     announcement, breaking it down piece by piece and showing 
     applicants how to craft an effective resume based on the 
     information given. He said a common mistake people make is 
     not reading the whole announcement before throwing their 
     hands up in bewilderment--though he certainly sympathizes 
     with them. ``It's a ton of data that can be very confusing 
     initially. You can't stop at the first paragraph, because if 
     you do, you're probably bypassing positions that you're 
     qualified for.''
       He also includes several cross-referenced indexes, which 
     can be particularly helpful to the truly lost hunter who 
     isn't sure if he's even looking at the right types of jobs to 
     match his private-sector skill set.
       ``The announcement gives you so much content to use, if we 
     slow down and appreciate what's in there,'' said Kathryn 
     Kraemer Troutman, author of the ``Federal Resume Guidebook'' 
     and president of the Resume Place, a consulting firm that 
     specializes in helping applicants for federal jobs.
       She offers a simple strategy for making sense of 
     announcements: Start with the ``duties'' section. Count the 
     sentences in the

[[Page S13986]]

     paragraph, and separate each one into a numbered line. Then 
     read each sentence again slowly. Within each sentence, 
     underline the key words.
       ``Then you will understand the position,'' she said. (This 
     works, but ``simple'' does not mean ``quick.'' It can easily 
     take hours. If you ever had to explicate poems in English 
     class, you get the idea.) Do the same thing with the 
     ``qualifications'' section, which will probably cover five or 
     six things. ``Those key words must be in your resume,'' 
     Troutman said. ``Don't be creative.''
       Something else to keep in mind: If the qualifications don't 
     make sense to you after careful study, perhaps you're just 
     not qualified. ``Private industry people many times do not 
     have the qualifications for federal jobs,'' Troutman said.
       If that's the case, your work still wasn't a waste. If you 
     dream of a fed job, make acquiring those qualifications your 
     goals, she said. ``Make this list your list, taking classes, 
     volunteering.''
       But lack of qualifications isn't always the problem. 
     Sometimes its just a language barrier--or a cultural one. 
     ``People from the private sector can't understand this 
     language,'' Troutman said. ``They just can't believe it.'' 
     Others just ``don't know how to play this paper game.''
       Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for 
     Public Service, said that job seekers need to remember that 
     all federal agencies are all different--right down to their 
     job ads.
       ``A lot of agencies still provide descriptions of job 
     openings that are convoluted,'' he said, but not all. ``Some 
     agencies get it. Some understand.''
       But if you don't understand, he said, pick up the phone and 
     call the agency. Announcements on USAJobs, the government's 
     primary avenue for advertising new jobs, include contact 
     information for the appropriate human resources officer.
       ``Even in the age of the Web, finding someone to speak with 
     can help,'' Stier said.
       And be patient. ``There are more and more good tools out 
     there,'' he said, ``but obviously it's still not a hiring 
     nirvana.''

                          ____________________