Plain Writing Act Compliance 

Annual Report 

April 14, 2014 

Dissemination 

In response to the Plain Writing Act of 2010, an action memorandum from the Executive 

Director for Operations instructed all managers to familiarize themselves with the requirements 

of the Act, and to encourage staff to take appropriate training. Staff are reminded to use plain 

language through periodic articles in the agency’s in-house newsletter, the NRC Reporter. The 

Commission has also directed staff to make greater use of plain language when speaking to the 

public about high profile events, such as the nuclear accident at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan. 

Glenn Ellmers, the agency’s Plain Writing staff lead, gives regular briefings at office-wide 

meetings, branch-wide meetings, meetings of branch chiefs and first-line supervisors, and other 

groups. The Executive Director also issued follow-up guidance to the staff on improving the 

quality of documents, emphasizing clarity of writing and the use of plain language, with links to 

training opportunities. Finally, Chairman Macfarlane has made plain writing at the U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission (NRC) a personal cause and mentions the topic frequently when 

addressing the staff at meetings or in groups. 

Action Plan 

The NRC identified the following documents that should be the focus of plain writing: 

Performance Assessments, Generic Communications, Inspection Reports, and Significant 

Enforcement Actions. These are stored in the agency’s Agencywide Documents Access & 

Management System database and are accessible through the public web site and the Public 

Document Room in Rockville, MD. In cases where a document is necessarily technically 

complex, employees are instructed to provide a plain language cover memo or abstract. We 

are also considering focusing on the following items: Regulation Abstracts, Regulation 

Forwards, Information Papers, and Agency Policy Statements. 

Web site 

Consistent with the Act’s requirements, the NRC created a section of our public website that 

outlines our Plain Writing Action plan and also offers general guidance on plain writing at the 

NRC. All annual reports posted there. 

Training 

The NRC offers multiple training courses to teach elements of plain writing and clear 

communication. All staff are encouraged to take the basic courses. Employees who write 

documents read by the public are encouraged to take the more extensive training options. 

These courses include: 

• Writing in Plain Language (Instructor-led, 2 days) 

• Technical Writing (Instructor-led, 2 days) 

• Plain Language (Web-based, 45 minutes) 

• Business Writing: How to Write Clearly and Concisely (Web-based, 1 hour) 

• Business Grammar: Sentence Construction (Web-based, 1 hour)

• In addition, staff from the Office of the Executive Director for Operations offer an annual 

training session for speakers at the NRC’s Regulatory Information Conference. This class, 
“Effective Practices and Techniques for NRC RIC 2014 Speakers” combines training in 

giving an effective presentation, dealing with the media, and using plain language.

In 2013, 84 staff completed one or more of these courses. An additional 128 staff are 

scheduled to take one or more of these courses in 2014. 

Stakeholder Feedback 

The NRC has a long-standing commitment to openness and transparency. Since the passage 

of the Plain Writing Act, the agency has implemented new subscription-based services on our 

public Web site to enable stakeholders to keep abreast of the most current agency news and 

activities. We’ve enhanced stakeholder involvement in public meetings by expanding the use of 

Web event and virtual meeting technologies, and furthered collaboration within industry and 

Government workgroups by using Web conferencing technologies. We have also introduced 

new interactive mechanisms for stakeholder engagement, including four successful social 

media technologies: the NRC Blog, a Twitter feed, a YouTube channel, and a Flickr photo 

gallery.