The people that would read this text are primarily game players (which can be a person of any age, social background, education, or class). Other people or companies that are creating card games might also read this as a reference for their games, and stockholders or owners in the Mattel Company might also read this to get an idea of the product they are offering. This text is used as instructions for the game, which means that unless someone is playing it for the first time they probably won’t sit down and read every word. It’s often used to answer specific questions about the game, which means people will skim the reading for a specific answer, and it’s written to accommodate that easily.
At the very top of the instructions, it states that the game (and the instructions) are intended for ages seven and above. I believe the reason for this is that most children in the US can read at age seven, and although some learn earlier the cards like “draw four” or “skip” may cause confusion in younger children. Many four year olds would benefit from a color/number matching game, but the other cards added may be too difficult. Readability calculators put the grade level of this text at between fifth and seventh grade, around ages ten to thirteen, which may initially cause confusion as to why the instructions are more difficult to read than the intended audience. There are several reasons for this, the main one being that this game is intended to be played with a family (younger children and adults) as a type of educational activity. A child at ages ten to thirteen would most likely be capable of learning the game rules themselves, but younger children often need adult help to learn most things, including card games. Mattel most likely determined that with adult guidance (at least initially to learn how to play the game), the perfect age for the game and this text would be age seven due to the average development of children in the US. Additionally, the readability calculators may have detected elements of the Official Style in it that are being used in a Plain Style, and don’t make the instructions more complex.
We can tell that this text is written in Plain Style because it breaks all the rules of the Official Style. This text uses small words and everyday language to make the instructions clear for anyone. The sentences are short and use active verbs. There isn’t any jargon, nominalizations, or technical words, and the words that correspond specifically to game play (like draw pile, discard, and uno) are written in all caps to distinguish them from explanatory words. The same terms are used throughout the instructions and aren’t substituted with synonyms, making the writing more specific and concrete. The only techniques of the Official Style that are used in these instructions are relative clauses and modal verbs, but they aren’t used to create the Official Style. These sentence structures are practically impossible to avoid in this text because many of the clauses are structured in an “if, then” or “when, then” format. The “if, then” and “when, then” clauses, as well as the modal verbs, clarify specific situations where there’s questions about whether an action is allowed. Usually, the relative clauses and modal verbs are coupled with strong actions verbs to create statements that grant permission. In the Official Style, modal verbs and relative clauses often create ambiguity and allow for other interpretations and possibilities, while in this text they are being used to allow specific actions to take place. Even though some of the stylistic choices for the text would be considered Official Style, in this case the text uses them and other aspects of Plain Style to create an easy-to-read set of instructions.
The organization of this text is also indicative of Plain Style. There are only a few paragraphs in a row, and most of the instructions are broken up into bulleted lists, terms and definitions, bolded words, numbering, index-style lists (for point calculations), and several layers of headings and subheadings. The information is broken up into small chunks that are easy to understand and convey one or two points, unlike an academic essay that might have paragraphs with several ideas jammed into it. The text is sequential and answers questions in the order that people would usually have them, with the most important info at the top (the object of the game, set up, and how to play) and the least important at the bottom (other variations of the game and how to make it more difficult). The organization is part of what makes this text so effective at addressing a large audience of varying ages and reading levels.
Usually, plain style texts are criticized for not conveying authority or multiple answers to complex questions. This text, because of the way it’s written, who it’s written by, who it’s written for, and how it’s intended to be used, doesn’t have these issues. These instructions are written by an authority figure (the game creators) about how to use their product. People use the rules as a reference during game play and consider them the official judge of whether or not an action in the game is legal, just like a dictionary in Scrabble. Because the authorities of the game wrote this text for the players to tell them how to play it, this text commands authority and dictates actions. The imperative voice (do this, do that) is more authoritative in this context than other types of sentences. The type of writing itself is credible and doesn’t need to use Official Style techniques to seem credible, such as the passive voice that emphasizes the action instead of the actors.
This text is also unique in that there aren’t questions posed by it that have multiple answers, like in an academic article. You can choose to follow the rules or break them, or follow some and break others, or change them altogether if you want, and the text allows for this with their mention of “house rules” and other suggestions for modifying the game. However, the official answers to game-play questions like “What do I do in this scenario?” or “Can I do this or that?” have a binary, yes-no answer in this text. In an experiment, solutions to the questions it explores use passive voice to allow for other interpretations of the results because there are so many possible answers, but in a card game leaving ambiguity would just confuse players that want to play the game according to the rules. Plain style is the perfect way to write a text like this because it’s needed to answer questions clearly and directly.
Overall, the use of Plain Style techniques in this text effectively accomplishes the goals of providing clear instructions for game play to a wide audience without seeming untrustworthy or too simplified to be correct.
Elizabeth Puck
