Adopt simple language to communicate with the population is now law. The text establishing the National Simple Language Policy in the bodies and entities of direct and indirect public administration was sanctioned by the President of the Republic and came into force as the Law no 15.263, of November 14th this year. The rules are valid for all Powers of the Union, the Federal District and the Municipalities.
The Policy seeks to ensure the use of this type of language so that citizens can find, understand and use information published by public administration bodies and entities more easily. With this, it is expected to reduce the need for intermediaries in communication between the Public Power and the citizen and the time spent on activities of service to the population.
In addition, the measure will allow the promotion of active transparency and access to public information in a clear way, facilitating popular participation and social control of public management, as well as understanding of public communication by people with disabilities.
Among the simple language techniques mentioned in the law are the writing of short sentences and in direct order, the development of an idea per paragraph, the use of common words of easy comprehension and the writing of full names before the acronyms. Another feature addressed is the organization of text schematically, when it fits, with the use of list, tables and graphic resources.
The law determines the non-use of new forms of flexion of gender and number of words in the Portuguese language, contrary to the consolidated grammatical rules, the Vocabulary Spelling of the Portuguese Language (Volp) and the Agreement Spelling of the Portuguese Language, promulgated by the Decree no 6.583, of September 29th of 2008. Another important measure is the translation of communications addressed to indigenous communities into the language of recipients.
