Resources

Selected Articles & Reports

“Is Artificial Intelligence Coming for Information Designers’ Jobs?” (2023). Information Design Journal, 28(1), pp. 1-6.

“Plain Language in the US Gains Momentum: 1940–2015.” (2017). IEEE Transactions in Professional Communication, 60(4), pp. 343-383.

“Gr ounding Plain Language in Research.” (2010). Clarity: Journal of the International Association Promoting Plain Legal Language, Vol. 64, pp. 33-39.

“Bioengineers as Professional Communicators.” (2009). Technical Report to Rice University.

“Readability Formulas in the New Millennium: What’s the Use?” (2000). ACM Journal of Computer Documentation, 24(3), pp. 138-140.

“Quality in Document Design: Issues and Controversies.” (1993). Technical Communication, Second Quarter, pp. 239-243.

“Plain Language for Expert or Lay Audiences: Designing Text Using Protocol-Aided Revision.” (1991). Technical Report for the Center for the Study of Writing, University of California (Berkeley) and Carnegie Mellon University.

“Document Design from 1980 to 1990: Challenges that Remain.” (1990). Technical Communication, 36(4), pp. 316-333.

“Evaluating Text Quality: The Continuum from Text-Focused to Reader-Focused Evaluation Methods.” (1989). IEEE Transactions in Professional Communication, 32(4), pp. 238-255.

Book Chapters

Ch3: How Documents Engage Readers’ Thinking and Feeling. From Karen Schriver’s 1997 Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

“On Developing Plain Language Principles and Guidelines.” (2014). In K. Hallik and K. H. Whiteside’s Clear Communication: A Brief Overview, pp. 55-69. Institute of the Estonian Language.

“What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about Information Design?” (2013). In J. Johnson-Eilola and S. Selber’s Solving Problems in Technical Communication, pp. 386-427. University of Chicago Press.

“What We Know about Expertise in Professional Communication.” (2012). In V. W. Berninger’s Past, Present and Future Contributions of Cognitive Writing Research to Cognitive Psychology, pp. 275-312. Psychology Press.

“Reading on the Web: Implications for Online Information Design.” (2010). In P. C. Oven and Pozar’s On Information Design, pp. 111-137. Ljubljana Museum of Architecture and Design.

“The Rhetoric of Redesign in Bureaucratic Settings.” (2015). In J. Frascara’s Information Design as Principled Action: Making Information Accessible, Relevant, Understandable and Useful, pp. 173-184. Common Ground Publishing.

“Teaching Writers to Anticipate Readers’ Needs: What Can Document Designers Learn from Usability Testing?” (1992). In H. Pander Maat and M. Steehouder’s Studies in Functional Text Quality, pp. 141-157. Rodopi Press.

Slides & Videos

“Improve Your Value at Work: Using Evidence to Influence Decision Making” – part of a closing keynote to the Society for Technical Communication

“Designing Plain Language Guidelines Internationally” – presented to the European Commission for the Clear Writing Awards

“Plain by Design: Evidence-Based Plain Language” – presented as part of a keynote to the International PLAIN Conference

“Reading on the Web: Implications for Online Information Design” – keynote presented to the Ljubljana Museum of Architecture and Design

Podcasts & Podcast Transcripts

Plain Language around the World

Plain Language: It’s about Smartening Up, Not Dumbing Down (HLOL: #149)

Using Design to Get People to Read and Keep Reading