Putting It Plainly.

Writing the way people talk--limiting syllables per word and words per sentence--can go a long way toward making statutes and government documents more understandable to the public. The U.S. government and some states have adopted such "plain language" standards for that very reason. But writing at a grade school level doesn't guarantee the message can be easily understood. A proposed Maryland law would require that ballot questions be accompanied by statements of the measures' purpose--on the ballots, not in a...