CLEAN CUT: A PLAIN-LANGUAGE PRO HELPS COMPANIES GET TO THE POINT BY CLEANING UP THEIR COMMUNICATION.

• Author: Leggett, Page

Communicating clearly, in writing and in speech, is in Deborah Bosley's wheelhouse. She maintains a laser focus on disambiguation--something her clients consider a real value-add. She brings a lot to the table.

Bosley will cringe reading that jargon-clogged paragraph. It's what the owner of Charlotte-based The Plain Language Group helps clients avoid. She may be professor emeritus of English at UNC Charlotte, but she eschews academic and business jargon and all manner of mumbo jumbo. She coaches clients, including Bank of America, Google, TIAA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others, to do the same.

"People have a mistaken belief that complex language makes them look smarter," she says, citing the example of "utilize" versus "use." People use fancier, bigger words--often without being aware of it--to impress peers and the higher-ups, Bosley says.

Nearly everyone is guilty, but lawyers are guiltier than most. An attorney once told Bosley that if her plain language crusade caught on, people wouldn't need lawyers anymore. She countered: "We will always need lawyers. I'm not going to represent myself in court."

"Every profession has a blind spot where their own language is concerned," she says. People who work in banking, law and government forget that not everyone speaks finance, legalese and bureaucrat.

The business case for plain English

It's not just that jargon is annoying. It excludes the uninitiated. "If people in the same industry want to speak to each other using their own acronyms, I have no problem with it," Bosley says. "If they understand each other, that's great. My problem comes when people use language as a barrier."

Unclear language, whether used by mistake or by design, confuses, conceals, and can ultimately result in unhappy customers and lost revenue. "Using plain language," Bosley says, "increases profits and decreases wasted time."

She's not a plain-English advocate purely because she empathizes with the beleaguered consumer who doesn't understand annual health-insurance enrollment forms, college-aid forms and loan applications --although she does empathize.

"Think about how many decisions we make every day based on information we don't understand," Bosley says. "Customers don't trust entities that make it hard to understand necessary information. People read with their emotions. If you read something that confuses or distresses you, you can't make a decision."

But it can be difficult to initiate an...