The Plain Writing Act of 2010 mandates that federal agencies use plain language in all public-facing documents and websites. Long, passive-voice sentences and unexplained jargon raise the cognitive load for all readers and functionally exclude people with lower literacy levels, non-native English speakers, and users accessing services under stress. When the average sentence exceeds 25 words, comprehension drops sharply for the majority of the U.S. adult population. Non-compliance with the Federal Plain Language Guidelines also signals systemic content governance failure — content that was never reviewed before publication.
High because content that violates the Plain Writing Act of 2010 and Federal Plain Language Guidelines actively prevents large segments of the public — including non-native English speakers and lower-literacy users — from understanding and using government services they are legally entitled to access.
Audit content on at least three public pages (home, about, a service page) using the plainlanguage.gov checklist. Target average sentence length under 20 words, active voice above 50%, and zero unexplained acronyms.
Revise sentences using this pattern:
// Before (passive, 22 words):
"The aforementioned documentation must be submitted in accordance with the
regulations established by the department."
// After (active, 10 words):
"Submit your documents following the department's rules."
For acronyms, expand on first use: "Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)." Use the Hemingway Editor or write-good linter in CI to flag readability regressions before deployment.
ID: gov-web-standards.plain-language.readability-metrics
Severity: high
What to look for: Read page content (About, Contact, home page intro, any policy pages) and manually assess. Count every sentence on at least 3 pages and compute: (1) average word count per sentence, (2) jargon density (unexplained technical terms per 100 words), (3) active voice ratio. For each page, enumerate all unexplained acronyms and jargon terms found.
Pass criteria: Sample content shows average sentence length under 20 words, no more than 2 unexplained jargon terms per page, and over 50% of sentences use active voice. Report the ratio of active-voice sentences even on pass (e.g., "8 of 10 sampled sentences use active voice").
Fail criteria: Sample content has average sentence length over 25 words, more than 2 unexplained jargon terms per page, or fewer than 50% active voice usage. Defining acronyms in a glossary page but not on the page where they appear does not count as pass.
Skip (N/A) when: The site has no public-facing text content (API-only or documentation sites may skip).
Cross-reference: For deeper content quality assessment including reading level scoring, the Content Quality audit evaluates readability metrics using Flesch-Kincaid and automated scanning.
Detail on fail: "Average sentence length on home page is 28 words; target is <20. Sentences like 'The aforementioned regulations necessitate the provision of requisite documentation...' use passive voice and jargon." or "Acronyms (FOIA, 21 CFR) appear without explanation"
Remediation: Rewrite content using the Plain Language principles (plainlanguage.gov):
Example revision:
Before: "The aforementioned regulations necessitate compliance with established guidelines."
After: "You must follow these rules."