Show Instructor Has Opinions On IRS Gobbledygook Instructions Instruction's With the nations nation's ta tax returns now submitted one Utah Tech professor has some cut clear-cut thoughts about them Giving up any part of ones one's earnings is pain enough says Liz Montague a professor of English at Utah Technical College at Salt Lake But the agony is r compounded by trying to follow those gobbledygook instructions accompanying the form I Yet the worst part is in knowing experts have already had a hand in simplifying the original material That's terrifying to think about Mrs Montague insists the IRS is only one of scores scores of federal and state units wasting citizens' citizens time and money by issuing unclear directions Every time a form is filled in incorrectly or a clarification is asked of of-an of an agency someone hasto hasto has hasto to take time to respond That someone is explaining what should have been made plain in the first place With each interpretation the payroll meter keeps running There have been sporadic attempts to get bure bureaucrats cr ts to simplify without being simple However most agencies and businesses continue their legalese and the jargon of the trade They fear understandable explanations might leave them open to lawsuits In the long run I think it is in the interest of businesses as w well Jf as consumers to keep documents forms contracts and instructional manuals as simple as possible says Professor Montague If lawyers are talking to lawyers let them converse in legalese if they desire But But when they are communicating to the general public they had better make themselves clearly understood The monkey is on their back to be straightforward and unambiguous not the theother theother theother other way around It shouldn't be the publics public's problem 4 f Mrs Montague feels the same way about other professions like accountants doctors realtors insurance people and so forth Have you picked a computer manual up lately lately- Until you experiment on ont t your own by trial and error the manual is usually incomprehensible And of I I course at that point you dont don't need the book The same thing applies too to i. i I those maddening instructions on how to assemble the kids' kids Christmas presents j k The Utah Tech professor concludes We need an uprising of ordinary folk i who will insist on plain English If cryptic terminology isn't plain to the I i ordinary person then the lawyer the broker the doctor shouldn't get paid i r t. t Is that stated simply enough to get the message across r z |