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Plain Writing Act Compliance Report

of the Farm Credit Administration

April 17, 2017

FCA staff who are responsible for Plain Writing Act compliance

• Mike Stokke, director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, is the senior 

agency official for plain writing. His email address is stokkem@fca.gov.

• Emily Yaghmour, writer/editor in the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, is the 

agency’s plain language coordinator. Her email address is yaghmoure@fca.gov.

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, such as the Annual Report on the Farm Credit System, the 

Performance and Accountability Report, and the Annual Proposed Budget and 

Performance Plan

• Text for the website

• Regulatory preambles

The following table provides more detail about some of these documents.
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Table 1. FCA documents to which plain language principles are applied

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

Staff members in the Office of 

Congressional and Public Affairs

edit these documents. They are 

well trained in the principles of 

plain writing. 

Reports of 

Examination —

presented to 

directors on 

the boards of 

the institutions 

we regulate

Directors on the boards of Farm Credit System 

institutions review these reports. FCA examiners 

use these reports to document findings from the 

exams they perform.

Approximately 10 to 20 individuals (the 

institution’s directors and members of 

management) review each report. The System 

consists of 77 lending institutions. 

Supervisory examiners now review 

these reports specifically for their 

clarity.

Guidance 

documents for 

Farm Credit 

System 

institutions, 

including

informational 

memorandums 

and board 

policy 

statements.

Directors on the boards of Farm Credit System 

institutions, as well as members of 

management, review these documents. The 

number of readers range from 1,000 to 2,000.

However, because these documents are also 

posted on our website, the general public may 

also read these documents.

Each major office division in the 

agency now has a designated plain 

writing reviewer. The reviewer for 

the office that is primarily 

responsible for producing a

particular document reviews it for 

clarity.

Occasionally, the office division 

requests the agency’s plain writing 

coordinator to edit documents for 

plain language.

News releases, 

issued 

electronically 

and posted on 

the agency’s 

website

The primary audiences include agricultural and 

finance reporters and representatives of the 

Farm Credit System. We send our releases to 

more than 300 reporters in print and 

broadcasting.

Since long before the Plain Writing 

Act was enacted, we have worked 

hard to write our releases in 

journalistic style.

As a result of plain writing training, 

FCA writers and editors are more 

knowledgeable of the principles of 

plain writing. 

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 2007, we substantially revised 

the content of our website to 

incorporate the principles of plain 

writing. 

We applied many of the same 

principles that are described in the 

Federal Plain Language Guidelines.
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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 about 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.

How we communicate Plain Writing Act requirements to staff

On FCA’s intranet site, we maintain a plain writing SharePoint site as part of the FCA 

intranet. This page

• describes the documents we produce that must comply with the Plain Writing Act;

• provides employees with information about training;

• provides links to many plain writing resources;

• refers employees to StyleWriter, a tool on the agency’s network that employees can 

use to help them evaluate the clarity of their documents; and

• encourages submissions for consideration for the annual FCA Plain Writing Award.

In 2016, we launched a Publication Resources SharePoint site. It contains the new agency 

style guide in HTML and PDF formats. Chapter 2 of the style guide focuses on writing in 

plain language. 

Also, since April 15, 2016, we have published the following articles in FCA Today, the 

agency’s electronic employee newsletter:

• June 15: Ask the Editor: Comprise or Compose?

• July 6: Plain Writing Wednesday: Be Inclusive — Use Plain Language and Make Your 

Information Accessible to All

• Aug. 3: Ask the Editor: One Space or Two After Periods?

• Sept. 19: New York Times Article Calls for Plain English in Financial Documents

• Sept. 28: Ask the Editor: Should I Left-Align My Document or Fully Justify It?

• Sept. 29: Plain Is Beautiful! OCPA Announces Fourth Annual Plain Writing Award 

Contest

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

following table shows training that has occurred since April 15, 2016.
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Table 2. FCA plain writing training, April 15, 2016 – April 14, 2017

Type of Training

Number of 

Employees 

Trained

Date

Online training for new employees. To provide plain writing training 

to new employees, we have 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. 

We have also posted the training on our Plain Writing SharePoint page 

for use by all employees.

22 April 15, 

2016 –

April 17, 

2017

Ask the Editor article series. In March 2015, editors in the Office of 

Congressional and Public Affairs announced a new article series called 

“Ask the Editor” for publication in the employee newsletter. The articles 

in the series address questions posed by agency employees on grammar 

and plain language. We hope that the series, in addition to answering 

specific questions, creates a discourse among employees about language 

and raises recognition of the value of clarity.

Undetermined March 

2015 –

Present

Online training, which consists of two courses, Writing I and

Writing II. These courses, which were developed by a contractor 

several years ago for use by FCA employees, 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 

course: 19

Writing II 

course: 20

April 15, 

2016 –

April 17, 

2017

The Plain Writing Act, an hour-long e-learning course provided 

by Skillsoft. Skillsoft is an e-learning platform designed to provide 

cloud-based learning solutions for federal employees.

1 April 13, 

2016 –

April 17, 

2017

Note: In 2011, each of the agency’s senior managers identified all employees in his or her office who either write 

or edit documents that would be considered covered by the Plain Writing Act. In all, 57 employees were identified. 

FCA made plain writing training mandatory for all of these employees. Ninety-three percent of these employees 

received the training.

Awards program

We have developed a plain writing awards program for which offices submit documents that 

are exemplary for their clarity. The agency presents annual awards to the authors of the 

winning documents.

Last year (2016) was the fourth consecutive year that we presented plain writing awards. 

See the timeline for more details.

Clearance process

Staff in the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs reviews and edits many agency 

documents for clarity and ease of use. To measure the effectiveness of these reviews, we 

sometimes run the StyleWriter application on documents before and after reviewing them. 
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Most agency documents receive plain language reviews within their originating offices. All

major offices in the agency have designated plain writing reviewers. These individuals 

review covered documents produced by their offices to ensure that they are plainly written. 

FCA’s plain writing coordinator held a training session for the reviewers in March 2013.

In addition, the plain writing reviewer for our Office of Examination has added the following 

element to an internal control document that FCA examiners must use when they review 

reports of examination: 

Was the report edited for plain language with consideration of the following:

• Written for the average reader

• Organized to serve the reader’s needs

• Uses headings

• Uses “you” and other pronouns

• Uses active voice

• Uses short sections and sentences

• Uses simplest tense possible

• Uses base verbs, not hidden verbs

• Omits excessive words

• Uses “must” to express requirements

• Places words carefully

• Uses lists and tables

• Uses no more than two or three subordinated levels

Style guide

In late 2015, the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs 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 and Records Administration’s 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. 

In April 2016, we published the guide in a wiki library on the agency’s intranet site. The 

guide should be a valuable resource to all of the agency’s writers and editors, and 

particularly to our plain writing reviewers.
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Implementation timeline

We set up our plain writing program in 2011. The following table shows a timeline for the 

implementation of the program.

Table 3. FCA’s timeline for implementing the Plain Writing Act

Action Target 

Deadline Results

The agency will train all employees who write 

or edit documents covered by the Plain 

Writing Act.

April 13, 

2012

Ninety-three percent of the 57 employees 

for whom training was mandatory have 

received training. In addition, 54 

employees for whom the training was not 

mandatory have received training.

FCA will complete an online training 

presentation that will serve as mandatory 

plain writing training for all new FCA 

employees.

April 13, 

2013

The agency began using the online training 

presentation in August 2012.

The agency will implement an awards 

program to recognize examples of plain 

writing.

April 13, 

2013

The chair of the FCA board approved 

creation of the plain writing award 

program in March 2013, and the awards

program was announced to senior 

managers in April.

FCA will provide resources and guidance to 

plain writing reviewers throughout the 

agency.

April 13, 

2013

FCA held a training session for five plain 

writing reviewers on March 20, 2013.

In July 2013, FCA announced the 2013 FCA 

Plain Writing Award in its electronic employee 

newsletter. The announcement encouraged 

employees to submit documents to be 

considered for the award. In November, a 

panel of reviewers from across FCA gathered 

to review and judge 11 submissions. 

December 

2013

In a ceremony on Dec. 11, 2013, FCA 

board chair Jill Long Thompson presented 

plain writing awards to two FCA 

employees.

On Oct. 29, 2014, we hired Ginny Redish, 

renowned plain language expert and author of 

“Letting Go of the Words,” to deliver a halfday workshop to FCA employees. 

Oct. 29, 2014 Approximately 30 employees, including 

many examiners and attorneys, attended 

the training. We collected 23 surveys, 

ranking the workshop as “excellent” or 

“very good.”

In October 2014, FCA employees submitted 

14 documents, or portions of documents, for 

consideration for the 2014 Plain Writing 

Award. Using StyleWriter statistics on each 

document and a checklist from 

plainlanguage.gov, the panel of judges 

selected a winning document written by two 

FCA employees.

December 

2014

In a ceremony on Dec. 11, 2014, FCA 

board chair Jill Long Thompson presented 

Plain Writing Awards to two FCA 

employees.

In October 2015, FCA employees submitted 

10 documents, or portions of documents, for 

consideration for the 2015 Plain Writing 

Award. Using StyleWriter statistics on each 

document and a checklist from 

plainlanguage.gov, the panel of judges 

selected a winning document.

December 

2015

In the agency’s annual awards ceremony 

on Dec. 9, 2015, FCA board chairman 

Kenneth A. Spearman presented the 

author of the document with the 2015 

Plain Writing Award.
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Action Target 

Deadline Results

In October 2016, FCA employees submitted 

10 documents, or portions of documents, for 

consideration for the 2016 Plain Writing 

Award. Using StyleWriter statistics on each 

document and a checklist from 

plainlanguage.gov, the panel of judges 

selected a winning document.

December 

2016

In the agency’s annual awards ceremony 

on Dec. 8, 2016, FCA board chairman 

Dallas P. Tonsager presented the author of 

the document with the 2016 Plain Writing 

Award.

Agency’s plain writing website

Plain Writing at FCA is the agency’s official plain writing web page. It is located at 

www.fca.gov/home/plainwriting.html. A link to the page is available from our homepage.

Our plain writing page contains a link to the FCA Plain Writing Act Implementation Plan, 

which was published on July 8, 2011.

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, either positive or negative, 

through our plain writing web page.