Plain Writing Act Compliance 

Annual Report 

April 24, 2013 

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. This month, the Executive Director will be issuing new 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 (see below). Finally, Chairman Macfarlane has made plain 

writing at the 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 are 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)

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 
2 

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.