Plain Writing Act: 2024 Annual Report

I. Senior Agency Official for Plain Writing

Eric E. Wachter
Director
Office of the Executive Secretariat
wachter.eric@epa.gov
(202) 564-1878

II. Training

1. The EPA offers an agencywide plain-writing training through its learning and development program, EPA University. The course adheres to federal plain writing guidelines.
2. The Office of Public Affairs in the Office of the Administrator provided agencywide training on the importance of plain language and AP Style to promote effective and understandable communication materials.
3. The Office of Inspector General editors held a half-day training session to an Office of Audit directorate on “Writing EPA OIG Reports That Matter,” which included a section on plain writing.
4. OIG editors presented an officewide training on Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease and Reading Grade Level, which focused on readability and provided targets for Reading Grade Levels.
5. The Office of the Executive Secretariat held two agencywide training sessions to discuss the new Correspondence Manual and discuss principles of plain writing.
6. The New York regional office requires all public affairs staff to take a one-day mistake-proof grammar and writing training.
7. The Denver regional office’s public affairs team held an hour-long training session on plain writing for all regional employees.
8. The Seattle regional office holds an annual series of public involvement trainings available for all staff. These trainings cover various aspects of external communication, many of which include plain-writing concepts.
9. The San Francisco regional office continued holding plain writing presentations for employees to improve region-wide compliance.

III. Ongoing Compliance and Sustaining Change

1. The national-program and regional offices have designated or are identifying officials for plain writing who work in collaboration with the senior official.
2. See appendix for a list of the designated officials.
3. These designated officials possess institutional knowledge of the unique processes and suite of documents produced in their offices to implement processes for ongoing compliance.
4. These processes include communications officials’ approval of documents; multi-level managerial review for plain writing; designating plain-writing coordinators in individual offices; and refresher training courses.
5. Offices continue to follow plain-writing procedures to satisfy the executive order and administrative orders that predate the Plain Writing Act.
6. The Office of the Executive Secretariat in the Office of the Administrator published a new edition of the EPA’s Correspondence Manual. This followed a collaborative agencywide effort that sought input from each office and region.
7. The Office of the Public Affairs in the Office of the Administrator created a communications intranet site that standardizes the agency use of AP Style on public and internal webpages.
8. The New York office continued its initiative to revamp its websites for Superfund sites so they better meet plain writing principles and are easier to understand is ongoing.
9. Colleagues in New York also continue to translate public documents to make them more accessible to the diverse communities of the region.
10. The Seattle office offers an annual series of public-involvement trainings available to all staff that cover a range of external communication, many of which include plain writing concepts. The course list includes “Writing for the Web.”
11. The San Francisco office hired a language accessibility lead who is responsible for editing external communications with plain writing principles in mind.
12. The Office of Air and Radiation has resources for its staff to better aid the public’s understanding of climate change terminology.
13. The Office of Research and Development’s Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment initiated and completed a project to ensure public web content is clear and accessible to all readers. This includes training and outreach on the new process for all staff responsible for web content.
14. The Office of Research and Development improved plain writing processes for its primary external newsletter, EPA’s Science Matters. Editors of the newsletter created and promoted a new, easily accessible, plain language guide for ORD staff writers. The guide provides greater transparency about the writing and review process, as well as resources for interviewing ORD experts, writing with the EPA’s plain language style and structuring a story.
15. The Office of Inspector General created an internal blog post for International Plain Language Day.
16. The Office of the General Counsel’s National Freedom of Information Act Office updated its website to comply with the Plain Writing Act.

IV. Agency's plain-writing website

1. The EPA’s plain-writing website is:  https://www.epa.gov/web-policies-and-procedures/plain-writing.
2. The site is linked from the EPA’s homepage.

Appendix: EPA Plain Writing Designated Officials

Office of the Administrator

• Angela Shogren

Office of Air and Radiation

• Katherine Stevens

Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention

• TBD

Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance

• TBD

Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights

• TBD

Office of the Chief Financial Officer

• Diane Kelty

Office of the General Counsel

• Elise Packard

Office of the Inspector General

• Jee Kim

Office of International and Tribal Affairs

• Martin Dieu

Office of Land and Emergency Management

• TBD

Office of Mission Support

• TBD

Office of Research and Development

• Dayna Gibbons

Office of Water

• Kathleen Struck

Region 1 (Boston)

• TBD

Region 2 (New York)

• Mary Mears

Region 3 (Philadelphia)

• Gail Scott

Region 4 (Atlanta)

• Davina Marraccini

Region 5 (Chicago)

• TBD

Region 6 (Dallas)

• TBD

Region 7 (Kansas City)

• TBD

Region 8 (Denver)

• Marisa Lubeck

Region 9 (San Francisco)

• Ayana McNair

Region 10 (Seattle)

• Charles Bert