Did you know there are many ways to apply plain talk to your environmental documents? This page features WSDOT's Reader-Friendly Document Tool Kit, and a variety of other tools and resources.
Why is WSDOT focused on creating reader-friendly environmental documents?
We are working to create reader-friendly environmental documents to help people, including the public and decision-makers, understand the effects and benefits of the work that we do. Publishing clearly written documents isn’t just a good idea, in our state, it’s required by a 2005 executive order signed by Governor Gregoire. Gregoire’s Plain Talk order requires state agencies to use simple and clear language when communicating with citizens and businesses.
Transportation issues are important to our citizens, and it’s important that we communicate effectively about the work that we do. One way we can improve communication is by developing environmental documents that are concise and clearly written.
What are reader-friendly or plain talk environmental documents?
Reader-friendly or plain talk documents are documents that clearly communicate with their intended audience (readers). Typically, our environmental documents must communicate project effects and mitigation to many different audiences, including the public, resource agency reviewers, local agencies, and attorneys. For these reasons, we must strive to create environmental documents that address the diverse needs of these different audiences.
The Reader-Friendly folio (pdf 310 kb) gives a quick overview of what the Reader-Friendly approach is, why we are doing it, challenges and resources.
What other tools and resources can help me?
We have developed a Reader-Friendly Document Tool Kit (pdf 571 kb) to provide you with tools and tips that you can use to make your environmental documents easier to understand. The tool kit is a companion to WSDOT’s Environmental Procedures Manual. The main body of the tool kit provides tips and techniques you can use to create reader-friendly environmental documents. The appendices (pdf 5637 kb) provide tips and tools in specific subject areas such as writing tips, graphic design tips, and number of tools you can use to manage your work as you develop clearly written and thought out environmental documents.
Our WSDOT Communications Manual contains valuable guidance and resources for producing all documents. You can obtain a copy from our Communications office, if you do not have access to our intranet.
Plain talk in Washington state
This website provides information about the Governor’s plain talk initiative and provides plain talk resources to help our state agencies improve the readability of government publications.
Related national efforts
There are many resources available outside of WSDOT that can help you in your efforts to create reader-friendly environmental documents.
AASHTO/ACEC 2006 report
In May 2006 the AASHTO and ACEC in cooperation with the FHWA, published a joint report Improving the Quality of Environmental Documents outlining ways to improve NEPA document quality. The report discusses ways to improve NEPA documents by making them easier for people to read and understand. The report incorporates and endorses many of the concepts and approaches discussed in WSDOT’s Reader-Friendly Document Tool Kit. The FHWA published a memo in June 2006 that supports the findings and recommendations of the 2006 AASHTO/ACEC report.
Plain language website
This website provides a wide variety of tips and techniques you can use to improve the clarity of your writing.
Other WSDOT tools
Comment sheet and instructions to reviewers
We have found that using a comment sheet (pdf 36kb) helps reviewers document and prioritize their comments. This form or variation of it can be used when you review any document. Using a form like this throughout the internal review process helps authors and reviewers as well as providing valuable documentation. We discovered that ranking of comments helps us to sort them by importance. These example instructions (pdf 21kb) explain how to use a comment sheet, rank comments and should help improve the consistency of comments.
Discipline report templates
We have created social (pdf 53 kb), economic (pdf 53 kb), and environmental justice (pdf 56 kb) templates for technical reports. Since some project teams use the Reader-Friendly format for technical reports, these templates can be used. Or you can adjust them if you choose to not use the Reader-Friendly format for your technical studies. In either case, they should help you to "plain talk" your documents. These templates can also be adjusted for different levels of complexity by expanding the effects and mitigation sections.
Examples of reader-friendly WSDOT environmental documents
The links below provide several examples of reader-friendly documents published for a number of WSDOT projects:
For questions
Please contact Carol Lee Roalkvam at (360) 705-7126.