By Olivia Revels
The plain style is vital when it is used to explain a
service that most people in the U.S. will need.
I looked at an article about Medicare that was written by AARP or
American Association of Retired Persons in 2021. Medicare is a national health insurance
program that is mainly used by individuals 65 years or older and by younger
people with disabilities. It is a
commonly used service in the U.S. that many have used and/or want to use when
they are eligible for the program.
However, it can be quite difficult to understand and know if you are
eligible to apply, how to apply, when to apply, and why this service may be a
good fit for you. It can be especially
difficult because the text surrounding Medicare contains elements from the
official style that reflects the bureaucracy and the medical field. An example of the way Medicare is defined
from Investopedia in 2022 is “Medicare is a U.S. government health insurance
program that subsidizes healthcare services.
The plan covers people age 65 or older, younger people who meet specific
eligibility criteria, and individuals with certain diseases.” I don’t know about you, but I do not
understand what subsidize means, let alone what exactly Medicare is from this
definition.
That is why this article from AARP is so important for
understanding Medicare when put into a plain style of writing. I want to explore the elements of plain style
in the article and then get into a discussion on how this article increases
accessibility and assumes competence of the audience while using the plain
style.
The elements of plain style are present throughout the
article. This includes things like
simple sentence structure, less prepositional phrases, the use of active voice,
and when jargon is presented, it is explained clearly. The simple sentence structure is present for
a majority of the article and especially with the title being “What is
Medicare?” There are subsections of the
article titled as “Taking control of your health care” and “Medicare adapts to
the Coronavirus.” All of these reflect a
simpler sentence structure that has fewer words, identifies a clear subject and
the verb is tied to that subject. Also,
the average number of words per sentence is much lower at 18.42 than the text I
looked at with official style with 24.51 words per sentence.
There are significantly less prepositional phrases used and
instead the sentence format emphasizes the active voice over the passive
voice. Out of the entire article there
were only about six prepositional phrases and were still simple in structure,
for example “in the hospital,” “in recent years” and “into the decisions.” These are not more than a few words long and
have no specific jargon or complicated vocabulary being used in them that
allows for the clear presence of the plain style.
Another element of the plain style here is the structure of
using active voice in a “subject + verb” format quite often in this
article. This format also helps
eliminate the use of noun substitutes.
An example of this is “You need to pay attention to all of Medicare’s
parts.” At the very beginning of the
sentence, we see “you need” which is clearly the “subject + verb” format of
active voice. More examples of this
format are “Medicare is,” “enrollees cope,” “the federal government said,”
“Medicare beneficiaries will not,” etc.
There are many more, but these are just a few to show how recurrent they
are in the article.
The last element I will discuss is jargon in the article and
how it is explained. The first term is
Medicare and is portrayed in the first paragraph as “What is Medicare? For more than 55 years, it’s been the program
that older Americans and people with disabilities turn to for their health care
coverage.” The jargon is Medicare and
immediately after it is mentioned, the next sentence provides an explanation of
what it is. This allows the reader to
clearly understand what that term is and understand it for the rest of the
article. The same concept repeats with
other jargon in the article. The word
was used, then there is an explanation in the next sentence or so for the
reader to easily have access to that information.
Now that we have looked at all these elements of the plain
style, we can get into how they have made the article much more
accessible. When the plain style
elements and strategies are used, this article is no longer impossible to
read. Someone would be able to
understand what is being said without having to research other definitions and
explanations. This widens the audience
reading this and using the information since they could comprehend it. Other elements beyond comprehension for this
article’s accessibility include that it had a Spanish version of the
article. This way native Spanish
speakers could access the same information with no complications. Another reason for this article’s great
accessibility is that it is available to read without a paid subscription.
The last element of this article’s accessibility is how it
assumes competence of its target audience.
The target audience of this article is mainly the elderly and disabled
individuals. Many people hold negative
stereotypes surrounding the competence of elderly and disabled individuals and
the plain style. These stereotypes
assume that they cannot understand the information being presented and need to
have it explained to them in a derogatory way that assumes they are
incompetent. However, this article
ignores those and goes beyond writing in a way that is accessible and
inclusive. Mainly using the plain style,
we see a form of writing that converts the normally confusing and complicated
governmental, insurance and medical writing into something much more
efficient. An example of this in the
article is:
You'll need to do some homework before you start assessing
options and picking plans. Make a list of your doctors and decide how important
it is to you that you can continue seeing them once you are on Medicare. Also
make a list of any medications you take so you can make sure any prescription
drug plan you select will meet your needs.
We see commands being made to the audience with “make a
list” and “decide” throughout this paragraph.
The use of commands shows that the article is assuming the competence of
its audience which is dissimilar from the societal norms associated with ageism
and ableism. Also, the language used is
specific yet understandable. We can
understand that we need to be planning, looking at doctors, and taking stock of
medications before taking any next steps.
Overall, this article applies strategies from the plain
style, increases accessibility and assumes competence to be inclusive of all
individuals. The topic of Medicare is
complicated and confusing, so the use of plain style is essential for readers
to understand the information presented.
Its increased accessibility and assumption of competence prevents
exclusion of certain readers based on their education, native language, and/or
identities. This article is a great
example of how the plain style can be used to benefit a broad range of people
on a subject that many need to be aware of but have little or no help
with.
No comments:
Post a Comment