Goal: Highlight the key role civil society plays in making information more accessible and inclusive, especially for underserved groups.
Across Europe, different countries made effort to come up with their own plain language tools; their scope and implementation vary depending on a number of factors. Some countries offer a structured ecosystem of support, while others rely on isolated initiatives or informal practices.
Broadly speaking, we can group national tools into three categories:
- Writing guides and style manuals
These include recommendations on sentence structure, word choice, formatting, and tone. Sweden, for example, provides a centralised guide—Myndigheternas skrivregler—through its national language council (Språkrådet, 2023). The European Commission has also published institutional clear writing guidelines (European Commission, 2023). On an international scale, Inclusion Europe provides guidelines on how to use easy-to-read-and-understand writing correctly (Šveřepa, 2023). - Training and capacity-building
Workshops, coaching, and e-learning modules for civil servants are key to turning guidelines into practice. In the Netherlands and Flanders, the “Direct Duidelijk Brigade” works directly with public organisations to train staff and revise documents (Taalunie, 2023). - Templates, checklists, and readability tools
These resources help writers apply abstract rules to real texts. Checklists and templates are especially useful in high-volume contexts such as tax, health, or legal communication. Some governments also provide online readability checkers, though these tools can’t replace user testing. In New Zealand, the government’s digital portal recommends and links to readability testing tools (such as Hemingway and Microsoft Word’s readability stats) as part of its national plain language implementation. These tools are used to help public service teams check if content meets the target comprehension level (Digital Government NZ, 2021).
The type and quality of tools often reflect how seriously a country takes plain language. Where clear writing is a legal obligation or part of onboarding for civil servants, tools are well-maintained, publicly available, and regularly updated (take a fuller look at the list provided by PLAIN, 2023). Where it remains a soft recommendation, tools tend to be decentralised and used in an uneven manner.
Ultimately, tools are only part of the story, and what really matters is whether institutions use them consistently and strategically.
Sources
Clear writing for Europe. (2024, May 23). European Commission.
PLAIN Language Association International. (2023). Plain language around the world.
Språkrådet. (2023). Myndigheternas skrivregler.
Taalunie. (2023). Direct Duidelijk Brigade.
New Zealand Digital Government. (2022, February 10). Readability testing tools.