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Plain Writing Act Compliance Report

of the Farm Credit Administration

April 14, 2023

The Farm Credit Administration recognizes the importance of plain 

writing, and we strive to ensure that all the documents we issue are 

written clearly. By doing so, we accomplish our mission more effectively, and we comply 

with the requirements of the Plain Writing Act of 2010.

The Plain Writing Act requires federal agencies to write "clear government communication 

that the public can understand and use." In July 2011, we issued a Plain Writing Act 

Implementation Plan (PDF) to ensure that we meet the requirements of the law.

This report describes our plain writing program and our activities over the past 12 months 

to support plain writing at FCA.

Recent plain language reviews

For many of the documents that are posted on the FCA website, the editors in the Office of 

Congressional and Public Affairs (OCPA) perform comprehensive plain language reviews. 

Over the past 12 months, OCPA editors reviewed five informational memorandums, one 

bookletter, and several memorandums. These documents provide information and guidance 

to the financial institutions we regulate.

OCPA editors also carefully reviewed the agency’s three major reports this year:

• FCA Annual Report (PDF)

• FCA Performance and Accountability Report (PDF)

• FCA Proposed Budget and Performance Plan (PDF)

When performing plain writing reviews, OCPA editors work closely with all content authors

to ensure that the edits made to achieve clarity still convey the authors’ intended meaning.

Other FCA documents undergo plain language reviews within their originating offices. Our 

Office of Examination has emphasized the importance of plain writing reviews by including 

plain writing guidelines in the internal control document that FCA examiners must use when 

they review reports of examination. 

New guidance document to support FCA writers

In the spring of 2023, OCPA editors developed plain writing guidance specifically tailored to 

the needs of our agency’s subject-matter experts.
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The guidance begins with a short list of rules, together with cross-references to more 

extensive information in the Federal Plain Language Guidelines. Here’s an example: 

Use “we” when referring to FCA, and use “you” when referring to your audience. 

“More than any other single technique, using ‘you’ pulls users into your document 

and makes it relevant to them.” (Guidelines, 30–32)

The bulk of the guidance consists of a table containing 15 before-and-after examples of 

plain language edits that were made to recently published informational memorandums and 

bookletters. 

The first column of the table shows the “before” content, which was taken from the draft 

that the subject-matter experts submitted to OCPA for editing. The second column shows 

the “after” content, reflecting the plain language edits that were approved for final 

publication. The third column provides a detailed explanation of the edits made, together 

with cross-references to related material in the Federal Plain Language Guidelines.

FCA expects to hold a plain language training session with several agency writers later this 

year, and we plan to use this guidance in the training. We have also printed and bound 

copies of the Federal Plain Language Guidelines to distribute to training participants.

Further resources to support plain writing at FCA

Plain writing intranet site

OCPA maintains a plain writing page on the FCA intranet site in SharePoint. As the 

screenshot below shows, this page provides FCA employees with information about training, 

the FCA plain writing award, and links to numerous plain writing resources, including the 

agency’s style guide. It also encourages employees to reach out to OCPA for grammar or 

writing style questions.
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FCA style guide

In late 2015, OCPA worked with plain language consultant Ginny Redish to finalize a style 

guide for the use of all FCA employees. We modeled the style guide after the National 

Archives’ guide. For the most part, our guide follows the style conventions of the Associated 

Press. In addition to providing guidance on punctuation, capitalization, and other style 

issues, the guide contains a section on plain writing. It includes many examples from FCA 

documents.

A plain writing technology tool: StyleWriter

FCA holds an enterprise-wide license for StyleWriter, an application that FCA writers can use 

to measure and improve the clarity of their writing. Among other measures, StyleWriter 

provides a “bog index.” This measure considers sentence length, word difficulty, the use of 

abbreviations, passive verbs, and other variables. OCPA periodically publishes reminders in 

the employee newsletter to encourage FCA writers to take advantage of this resource.

FCA publication resources

In 2016, we launched a publication resources SharePoint site. As the screenshot below 

shows, we also offer numerous Word templates for common agency documents. These 

documents facilitate 508 compliance and ensure formatting consistency in our written 

materials.

FCA’s plain writing website

Plain Writing at FCA is the agency’s official plain writing web page. A link to the page is 

available from our homepage. To give the public an opportunity to report FCA documents 

that are difficult to understand, the agency’s plain writing web page provides contact 

information for Emily Yaghmour, the agency’s plain writing coordinator. As of yet, we have 

received no feedback from the public through our plain writing web page.
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FCA documents covered by the Plain Writing Act

FCA has identified the following agency documents as covered by the Plain Writing Act:

• Reports of examination

• Informational memorandums

• Bookletters

• Policy statements

• Legal opinions

• Major agency reports

• Text for the website

• Regulatory preambles

The following table provides more detail about some of these documents.

Publication 

type Audience

How we ensure these 

documents comply

All major agency 

reports, all of 

which are 

available on our 

website

These documents have multiple audiences:

• Representatives of the Farm Credit System

• Members of Congress

• Media representatives

• The general public

OCPA editors review these

documents for clarity and work 

with content authors to revise 

them.

Reports of 

Examination—

presented to 

management and 

board directors at 

the institutions we 

regulate

Management and board directors at Farm 

Credit System institutions review these reports, 

which FCA examiners produce to document 

findings from the exams they perform.

Approximately 10 to 20 individuals review each 

report. The System consists of more than 60

lending institutions. 

Supervisory examiners now 

review these reports for clarity 

before they are issued.

Guidance 

documents for 

Farm Credit 

System 

institutions, 

including

informational 

memorandums 

and board policy 

statements

Management and board directors at Farm 

Credit System institutions review these

documents. The number of readers ranges from 

1,000 to 2,000.

However, because these documents are posted 

on our website, the general public may also 

read them.

OCPA editors provide a 

comprehensive plain writing 

review of each of these 

documents before distributing 

and posting to the agency 

website.

News releases The primary audiences include agricultural and 

finance reporters and representatives of the 

Farm Credit System. We send our releases to 

more than 500 reporters in print and 

broadcasting.

OCPA editors work closely with 

subject-matter experts to 

ensure that our press releases 

are written clearly.

FCA website The audiences for our website include the 

following: 

• Representatives of the Farm Credit System

• Borrowers and potential borrowers

• Members of the media

• Members of Congress

• The general public

In 2018, we revamped our 

website. We reviewed all the 

pages for plain writing and 

rewrote much of the content. 

The vendor that worked with 

us to revamp the site also 

provided some plain writing 

guidance.
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Publication 

type Audience

How we ensure these 

documents comply

FCA Today, the 

agency’s 

electronic 

employee 

newsletter

The agency’s workforce of more than 300 

individuals constitutes the audience for the 

newsletter.

Individuals from across the 

agency submit content for the 

newsletter to the Office of 

Congressional and Public 

Affairs. OCPA editors provide 

plain-language edits to the 

articles and clear these edits 

with the article authors.

FCA’s plain writing training program

Since starting the program in 2011, we have provided training in various ways. The table 

below shows training that has occurred since April 15, 2022. In addition, we published an 

article in March 2023 in our employee newsletter to notify employees about a plain writing 

webinar offered by the Graduate School USA.

Type of Training

Number of 

Employees 

Trained

Online training for new employees. To provide plain writing training to new 

employees, we adapted Kathryn Catania’s plain writing PowerPoint presentation for 

our purposes. Leland A. Strom, the agency’s chairman and CEO from 2008 to 2012, 

narrated the slides. Every new employee is required to view the presentation online. 

This training is also available on our plain writing SharePoint page for use by all 

employees.

43 employees

Self-study curriculum. Our Office of Examination provides a self-study curriculum 

— POWER Writing I and II. These courses, which were developed by a contractor in 

2020, cover many of the principles in the Federal Plain Language Guidelines. These 

two courses are part of the mandatory training that all associate examiners receive 

when they join FCA. 

Writing I−

16 employees 

Writing II−

18 employees

For more information

If you have any questions about FCA’s plain writing activities, please contact one of the 

following individuals:

• Trevor Reuschel, director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, who also 

serves as FCA’s senior agency official for plain writing. His email address is 

reuschelt@fca.gov.

• Emily Yaghmour, deputy director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs,

who serves as the agency’s plain language coordinator. Her email address is 

yaghmoure@fca.gov.