Use Plain Language to Build Trust

By Rick Allen

When you ask someone for help and they respond using confusing or complex words and ideas, how does that make you feel? Do you feel confident, hopeful, encouraged, or welcome? Or do you feel frustrated, discouraged, dumb, or embarrassed?

When someone visits your website or opens your email, they experience these same emotions. What your audience feels in response to the words you use defines their relationship with your organization.

Writing in plain language means you understand your audience and communicate using words your audience can understand and relate to. It’s about connecting with your audience in a meaningful way to build relationships around shared goals. 

The plain language movement has a long history, including George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language”—a rallying cry against vague, misleading language. More recently, the Plain Writing Act of 2010 made it a law that U.S. federal government agencies use plain language in all documents. Today, “plain language” is commonly used to describe content that is easy to understand and use. 

Using plain language is especially important for government entities. Every day, millions of people search government websites, fill out government forms, and navigate government documents trying to understand and use public services. Imagine if doing your taxes or filling out a FAFSA form was easy to understand. 

But, no matter what industry you work in, every time you use jargon, complex language, or confuse people when they come to you looking for help, you lose their trust.

People lose trust in your organization when content is:

• Non-inclusive
• Disrespectful
• Dismissive
• Unfriendly
• Confusing
• Irrelevant
• Inaccessible
• Hard to find
• Hard to read
• Hard to understand

When you communicate with the sincere intention of helping someone understand, people feel it—and you start to earn their trust.

People gain trust in your organization when content is:

• Helpful
• Kind
• Considerate
• Respectful
• Understandable
• Accessible
• Inclusive
• Useful
• Usable
• Empowering

Plain language has everything to do with trust.

How to Build Trust with Plain Language

Visitors coming to your organization’s website are often in a vulnerable state because they need help. When you use plain language on your website, your visitors become empowered. Because they understand what to do, they feel less vulnerable and more capable. They can accomplish their goals and are more receptive to new ideas. Your visitors feel like your website is for them because you show respect and empathy with your words. 

Like all relationships, website owners and managers need to be a little bit vulnerable, too—by stepping out of their comfort zone to meet their audience where they are. It’s uncomfortable communicating in a way that doesn’t come naturally. I get it. With my academic background in writing and publishing, I’ve had to unlearn a lot of what I learned in college. Academic writing does not make for good web writing.

Building trusting relationships with customers, members, patients, or citizens, is hard work. But meeting shared goals only works if both parties care. Let's talk about how to use plain language to help form strong relationships built on trust.

Be Clear

Using plain language, you can convey your message in a clear, straightforward way. This helps prevent confusion, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations. Information that’s easy to understand is more trustworthy than information that’s confusing and hard to read.

Be Helpful

Plain language uses an appropriate voice and tone that supports the message you want to communicate. This means being mindful of your audience’s emotions and needs. Your words determine whether an error message is perceived as a helpful tip or a reprimand. Being helpful without judgment builds trust.

Be Inclusive

When you use plain language, people feel like your content is for them because the stories and words represent the diversity of your audience. When you make information accessible to those with disabilities, use gender neutral language, and use quotes, examples, and references that your audience can identify with, people feel like they are part of the story. You can build trust when you show you understand the diverse voices and needs of your audience.

Be Accessible

Plain language makes content accessible to a broad audience with different literacy levels, language backgrounds, and cognitive abilities—and optimizes content for use with accessibility tools. This means using straightforward words and sentences, structuring and organizing information in a logical way, and formatting and presenting information to simplify complex ideas and improve readability. You can build trust by removing barriers to comprehension and ensuring information is accessible for everyone who needs it.

Be Respectful

Plain language respects people’s time, intelligence, and needs. By making information easy to find, scan, and read, you can enable your audience to quickly and easily accomplish their goals. You earn trust by respecting your audience’s needs, like we would all like for ourselves.

Be Honest

Plain language forces you to be honest and upfront with your audience. The more simple and straightforward your writing is, the more honest it becomes. When you can’t hide behind complex language, you have to actually say what you mean. As author Margot Bloomstein says in her book, Trustworthy: “Humility delivered with simplicity builds confidence.” That's trust.

Be Empowering

Plain language empowers your audience by providing information they can understand and use. People can get things done when they understand what to do, and are more likely to trust when they feel like you’re helping them do it.

Good Examples of Plain Language in Government and Nonprofit

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) helps make diabetes research more clear for consumers by writing plain language summaries of research reports. In Diabetes in Young People Is on the Rise, the CDC uses simple headers, short descriptions, and bulleted lists to make information easy to scan and read—and summarizes the main message so people understand what to take away from the report.

Content that's easy to understand empowers your audience to make informed decisions and make positive change for themselves. 

Clear, empowering content builds trust by facilitating better outcomes for people.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) addresses people’s urgent concerns with a helpful voice and tone. Their Individuals and Households Program serves people who have been affected by disaster with straightforward language that guides them through the process of getting financial support.

By being upfront and honest about available options for those impacted by disaster and not over-promising what they can do, FEMA builds trust with those in need when they need that trust most—enabling FEMA to be as helpful as they can.

Helpful, honest content builds trust by showing people you have their best interests in mind.

Diversity Center of Seattle

The Diversity Center of Seattle conveys the diverse voices and needs of their community with images that represent the depth of ages, races, and genders that make up their community—and with the simple words, “We see you.”

When people see or hear themselves in the content you create, they feel recognized. They feel like this message is for them and are more likely to care about what you have to say. 

Inclusive content builds trust by demonstrating that you understand and value your audience.

National Institute on Aging

The National Institute on Aging shows respect by making it easy to scan and read detailed health information with the use of straightforward page descriptions. In Exercise and Physical Activity Tracking Tools, they provide a straightforward description of the purpose right at the top, with clear headers and descriptive link text throughout. 

The use of semantic markup language, like the <h1> and <h2> tags in HTML, also makes content more welcoming and accessible by making it easy to navigate page content. For people using screen readers, tags act as signposts to help them navigate a page. 

Respectful, accessible content builds trust by demonstrating that you care about your audience's needs.

The Challenge

Trust is valuable because you have to earn it.

When I feel stuck trying to write in plain language, I think, “What would I say to a friend if they came to me asking for help? What questions would I have for them to better understand their situation? What words could I use? What examples could I share? How could I show them I care?”

It takes time to understand someone else’s needs and to demonstrate a sincere interest in helping, but if you can do it you might just earn their trust.

Learn more about plain language principles, along with broader guidance and examples at:

• PlainLanguage.gov
• Center for Plain Language
• Plain Language Association International

About Rick Allen

Rick Allen is Director of Content Design at Coforma. He's a seasoned educator, content strategist, storyteller, and information architect, with over 15 years of experience leading and designing inclusive digital experiences that make positive and sustainable change for people. If you dig content that's easy to understand and use by the people who need it, say hello—Rick would love to chat.

About Coforma

Coforma crafts creative solutions and builds technology products that elevate human needs. They’re impactful by design. Visit coforma.io/culture/ to learn more about what makes them unique.