Today is International Plain Language Day. In honor of the day, we share this story of how we used plain language to improve services for Californians.
The Office of Data and Innovation (ODI) works with state departments to help them communicate clearly with the public. We authored California’s plain language standard and offer training through CalAcademy.
We also take an end-to-end look at services. It’s part of our focus on customer experience and making things as easy as possible for Californians. As part of this holistic look, we make communication improvements during our projects.
A great example is a recent project with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA). ODI worked with CDTFA on a data science project. Its goal was improving how CDTFA finds business tax returns with potential inaccuracies. The project was about working smarter with limited audit resources. Once CDTFA finds returns that might need fixing, they send a letter to businesses asking them to check their returns.
As we worked on the process, we took the opportunity to look at the content of the letters. CDTFA had been refining the language over time. They jumped at the chance to iterate further with best practices in content design.
What we did
We worked with the CDTFA team that manages the letters. We started by asking questions to understand:
- Who gets letters
- What recipients have to do when they get one
- How many types of letters CDTFA sends
- The similarities and differences across letters
- What CDTFA had already tried so we didn’t replicate past work
With this information, we applied content design principles to one of the letters. We also used CDTFA’s style guide to make sure it was consistent with their other communications.
We dug into these edits in real-time review sessions. We did this to make sure the substance was right. We also checked our assumptions against the customer experience. Sometimes we even clarified ambiguities in the original wording.
Once we finished the first letter, we applied our work across 5 more letters.
Clearer information for Californians
The result of our work was a shorter letter that was easier for businesses to understand.
- We removed repeated information and ideas.
- We reorganized it to mirror the steps recipients take after getting a letter.
- Where possible, we used more common words that are easier to understand.
The close collaboration in our sessions paid off when we sent the new letters out for review. They sailed through CDTFA’s review process.
To wrap up the project, we distilled the key strategies into a one-page guide. CDTFA is using this guidance to write more letters. It’s a great example of taking improvements from a pilot and making them part of ongoing operations.
ODI provided an outside perspective on our letters that helped us think about taxpayer communications in a new way. Our partnership with ODI highlights that small actions can have a big impact. Taxpayer communication seems simple on the surface, but this project shows just how much the details matter. CDTFA benefitted tremendously from ODI’s expertise.
—Reid Johnson — Data scientist, CDTFA
These letters will make it easier for everyone who gets them to understand what they need to do. One benefit of plain language is that it’s easier for people with disabilities to understand. And when you write content that’s better for them, you write better content for everyone.