Farm Credit Administration 

Plain Writing Act Implementation Plan

July 8, 2011

FCA has thus far met, or is in the process of meeting, the requirements of the April 13 

memorandum issued by the Office of Management and Budget to convey final guidance on 

implementing the Plain Writing Act of 2010. We have organized the following report according to 

the bulleted list of requirements on page 2 of the OMB memo.

I. “Designate one or more Senior Officials for Plain Writing who will be 

responsible for overseeing the agency’s implementation of the Act and this 

guidance.”

In May 2011, Mike Stokke, Director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs (OCPA), 

was designated as FCA’s Senior Agency Official for Plain Writing. Emily Yaghmour, 

Writer/Editor in OCPA, serves as FCA’s Coordinator for Plain Writing. On May 24, we sent an email announcing these two appointments to OMB.

II. “Create a plain writing section of the agency website.” 

On May 25, FCA posted Plain Writing at FCA, its plain writing Web page, located at 

http://www.fca.gov/home/plainwriting.html. The page is linked from FCA’s Open Gov page, 

which has a link on the Agency’s home page at www.fca.gov. 

In addition to describing the requirements of the Plain Writing Act of 2010, the page also invites 

feedback from the public regarding the clarity of the text on FCA’s website. We encourage 

visitors to contact us if they have difficulty understanding any of the information we provide on 

our website.

III. “Communicate the Act’s requirements to agency employees and train agency 

employees in plain writing.”

So far, FCA has communicated the requirements of the Plain Writing Act to employees in the 

following ways.

• On May 25, an article was published in the Agency’s employee newsletter, FCA Today, 

announcing the Agency’s Plain Writing Official. 

• On June 22, we sent an e-mail to all of the agency’s office directors, asking them to 

identify the employees in their offices who should receive plain writing training. The email informed the directors that employees who write or edit documents covered by the 

Plain Writing Act should be among the first to be trained.

• Also in June, FCA published information on the Plain Writing Act on the Agency’s 

SharePoint page, which serves as FCA’s employee intranet. This page provides 

information on employee training, as well as links to the Federal Plain Language 

Guidelines and to PlainLanguage.gov. 
• On July 7, an article was published in FCA Today to inform employees about the Federal 

Plain Language Guidelines and to announce a series of weekly plain writing articles in 

FCA Today. Each week for the next few months, FCA will publish an article in FCA 

Today featuring an excerpt from the Federal Plain Language Guidelines. The series is 

called “Uncle Sam Says.” The first two articles in the series will be “Uncle Sam Says: 

Write Short Sections” and “Uncle Sam Says: Don’t Use Slashes.”

We addressed the training requirement by first contacting all FCA office directors and 

requesting lists of employees who should receive the training. From these lists, an agencywide 

training list is being created. Fortunately, more than half of FCA’s almost 300 employees have 

already met the plain writing training requirements. 

For many years, FCA’s examiners have been required to take two writing courses—“Writing I: 

Writing Correctly” and “Writing II: Writing Effectively”—within their first two years of employment. 

These courses, which are now provided online, were developed specifically for FCA examiners. 

Together, these courses cover many of the principles of plain writing that are addressed in the 

Federal Plain Language Guidelines. Since more than half of the agency’s employees are 

examiners who have taken these classes, more than half of the agency’s employees have 

received training in the principles of plain writing.

For the employees who are required to receive plain writing training and who have not yet 

received it, we have developed a training plan. So far, the plan gives employees the following 

three options. However, we may identify other appropriate ways to meet the training 

requirement in the future.

• Take Writing I and Writing II. Although these online courses were designed for FCA 

examiners, you don’t have to be an examiner to find them useful. The first course, 

“Writing Correctly,” covers such basics as punctuation, sentence problems, and words 

that are similar and often confused. The second course, “Writing Effectively,” contains 

instruction on how to organize documents most effectively. This course also helps you 

learn to identify style problems, such as hidden verbs, deadwood construction, and 

inappropriate use of the passive voice. Both courses are engaging, with a fun, Jeopardystyle quiz to test your knowledge at the end of each course.

• Take a plain writing course at FCA. For those employees who prefer a real classroom 

setting, plain writing classes will be offered periodically at the agency. The first class is 

scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, August 24. The instructor is provided free of 

charge by the Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN).

• Take an approved course from an outside vendor. Employees may receive plain 

writing training by taking a course from an outside vendor. The FCA Plain Writing 

Coordinator will review the course description to confirm that it covers the principles of 

plain writing. 

IV. “Establish a process by which the agency will oversee its ongoing compliance 

with the Act’s requirements.”

OCPA staff members edit many of the documents that would be considered covered under the 

Plain Writing Act. For example, they edit the Agency’s three major reports—the Annual Report 
on the Farm Credit System, the Performance and Accountability Report, and the Proposed 

Budget—to ensure that they are written and organized clearly. In addition, OCPA staff has 

written or edited much of the content for the Agency’s website, as well as the agency’s news 

releases.

The editors who currently serve in OCPA are not trained in economics and finance as are most 

of the professional staff at the agency. Therefore, they can provide valuable feedback to 

subject-matter specialists about what members of the public may find confusing. 

The OCPA staff is not large enough to review all of the agency’s covered documents. To ensure 

that all of the agency’s covered documents are written using plain language, we will provide 

each office with a checklist of plain writing tips and will encourage employees to use this 

checklist as they prepare their documents.

In addition, FCA employees will be encouraged to use StyleWriter4, a software program located 

on the FCA computing network. StyleWriter4 can help identify overuse of the passive voice, 

overlong sentences, jargon, and other problems that can make a document difficult to read. 

Documents will be selected randomly for plain language review, and StyleWriter4 may be used 

to help assess the clarity of the documents.

V. “Publish an initial report, on the plain writing section of the agency’s website, 

that describes the agency’s plan for implementing the Act’s requirements.”

On July 8, FCA published its Implementation Plan on its website.