Bureaucratic Language in Government and Business

Roger W. Shuy

Georgetown University Press, Jul 1, 1998 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 208 pages

Plunging into the verbal quagmire of official language used by bureaucrats in both government and business, distinguished linguist Roger W. Shuy develops new techniques based on linguistic principles to improve their communication with the public.

Shuy presents nine case studies that reveal representative problems with bureaucratic language. He characterizes the traits of bureaucratic language candidly, though somewhat sympathetically, and he describes how linguists can provide bureaucrats with both the tools for communicating more clearly and also the authority to implement these changes.

Drawing on documents cited in class action lawsuits brought against the Social Security Administration and Medicare, Shuy offers a detailed linguistic analysis of these agencies’ problems with written and oral communication, and he outlines a training program he developed for government writers to solve them. Moving on to the private sector, Shuy analyzes examples of the ways that businesses such as car dealerships, real estate and insurance companies, and commercial manufacturers sometimes fail to communicate effectively. Although typically bureaucracies change their use of language only when a lawsuit threatens, Shuy argues that clarity in communication is a cost effective strategy for preventing or at least reducing litigation.

Bureaucratic Language in Government and Business explains why bureaucratic language can be so hard to understand and what can be done about it.

Contents

• Trying to Do Conversation on Paper A Case Study of a Medicare Benefits Notice: 1
• Background: 2
• The Original Form Sent to Beneficiaries: 4
• Problems with the Original Explanation of Medicare Benefits: 8
• HHSs Response to the Court Order to Revise the Form: 12
• Further Suggestions for Revision: 14
• Failure to Capture Beneficiaries Perspective: 16
• Futility of Followup Telephone Communication: 17
• Training a Bureaucracy to Write Clearly A Case Study of the Social Security Administration: 19
• Revision of SSAs Attempt to Comply with This Mandate: 21
• SSAs Request That We Train Their NoticeWriting Staff: 24
• Early Ethnographic Observations: 25
• Designing the Training Program: 27
• The Training Program: 28
• Features of the Training Program: 29
• Topic Analysis: 31
• The Decision Tree: 34
• Discourse Analysis: 39
• Word Comprehension: 42
• Authority Based on Linguistic Justification: 43
• Conclusion: 44
• A Bureaucracys Struggle with Saying No A Medicare Case Study: 46
• Title: 47
• Sentence Structure: 49
• Conveyed Meaning: 51
• Conclusion: 52
• When Bureaucracies Clash A Case Study of Physicians Disability Report Forms: 53
• TDDSs Proposed Medical Assessment Report Form: 54
• Legal Services Revised Form B: 57
• Legal Services Revised Form C: 62
• Bureaucratic Speech Research on Telephone vs InPerson Administrative Hearings: 63
• Background: 64
• Opinion Survey: 66
• Analysis of Actual Hearings: 67
• Power in the Administrative Hearing: 69
• Status and Role in Administrative Hearings: 70
• Hearings with Attorneys: 71
• Hearings with Beneficiaries: 72
• Rely on Informal Conversational Style: 73
• Share or give up Perceived Power: 81
• Letting the Beneficiaries SelfGenerate Topics: 88
• Defusing the Legal Format: 89
• Taking the Beneficiarys Perspective: 92
• Avoiding Displays of Knowledge: 94
• Advantages and Disadvantages of the Hearing Formats: 97
• Gender Differences: 103
• Socially Acquired Gender Specification Address Forms: 104
• Physical Presence vs Presence of Telephonic Voice Only: 106
• Conclusion: 107
• Facing the Bureaucratic Language of the Insurance Industry A Case Study of a Consumers Affairs Conference: 108
• Aspects of Language that Contribute to Comprehensibility: 113
• Misconceptions about Language that Interfere with Comprehensibility: 119
• Conclusion: 123
• Untangling the Bureaucratic Language of Real Estate A Case Study of Commission Agreements: 125
• Background: 126
• Commission Agreement Number One: 127
• Commission Agreement Number Two: 130
• Commission Agreement Number Three: 134
• Discourse Analysis: 137
• Contrastive Analysis: 140
• Conclusion: 142
• Attacking the Bureaucratic Language of Car Sales A Case Study of a Car Sales Event: 144
• Background: 145
• Specialization of Functions: 146
• Adherence to Fixed Rules: 150
• Hierarchy of Authority: 153
• Conclusion: 157
• Bureaucratic Language and Product Warning Labels Case Studies of the Requirements of FDA and OSHA Bureaucratic Language and Warnings: 158
• Bureaucratic Language and the US Food and Drug Administration: 159
• Bureaucratic Language and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA: 165
• Conclusion: 173
• What Is Bureaucratic Language and What Can Be Done About It?: 175
• What Is Bureaucratic Language?: 176
• What Can Be Done About Bureaucratic Language?: 181
• Works Cited: 185
• Index: 187

About the author

Roger W. Shuy is Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University. One of the foremost scholars in sociolinguistics, he has also pioneered the field of forensic linguistics, the application of linguistics to criminal law. He is the author of numerous books, most recently The Language of Confession, Interrogation and Deception (Sage, 1998) and Language Crimes (Blackwell, 1993). He currently lives in Missoula, Montana.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Bureaucratic Language in Government and Business
• Author: Roger W. Shuy
• Publisher: Georgetown University Press, 1998
• ISBN: 1589012844, 9781589012844
• Length: 208 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General