Inaccessible language hides the truth

There's one surer way of hiding an uncomfortable truth than publishing it on the same day as a news bombshell - that is writing it in very long, abstract words and long sentences. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills seems particularly gifted in this art.

The Independent today quotes a sentence from the department's annual report: "An overarching national improvement strategy will drive up quality and performance underpinned by specific plans for strategically significant areas of activity, such as workforce and technology". Apparently this is part of a strategy to hide their lack of a strategy.  Quite successful I should say - I for one will not be clamouring for a copy of the annual report so that I can read the rest.

The good news is that the department has been firmly told by MPs that next year its must use "terminology appropriate to its function".  Well I do hope those MPs give them a hand with their plain English.

If you run the offending sentence through the MS Word grammar checker, you will find that it has 26 words and a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 21.  That makes it significantly harder to read than Florida life insurance policies.  For more information on this readability gauge, have a look at the Wikipedia article.

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