• Corpus ID: 150447400

Plain English? A Study of Plain English Vocabulary and International Audiences.

@article{Thrush2001PlainEA,
  title={Plain English? A Study of Plain English Vocabulary and International Audiences.},
  author={Emily Austin Thrush},
  journal={Technical Communication: Journal of the Society for Technical Communication},
  year={2001},
  volume={48}
}

• E. Thrush
• Published 2001
• Education
• Technical Communication: Journal of the Society for Technical Communication

In 1989, a China Airlines flight, flying in zero visibility, crashed into the side of a mountain shortly after takeoff. On the voice recorder, the last words of the Chinese pilot to the co-pilot were, “What does pull up mean?” When I first heard this story, I wondered why a pilot, presumably trained in the international English used for aviation, would not understand a command from the tower. On investigation, I learned that the official term used in “control tower” talk is climb. However, the warning system built in to U.S.-made planes issues the message “Pull up!” when altitude drops or an object looms ahead. As a former teacher of English as a Second Language, I knew that expressions such as pull up—phrasal verbs or two-word verbs—are often very difficult for non-native speakers of English because they are idiomatic; that is, their meanings cannot be derived by knowledge of the individual words. Pull up once corresponded to the physical action of a pilot in pulling the control lever that adjusted the degree of ascent or descent of the plane. Now, however, most controls in a modern jetliner consist of dials and buttons—there’s no “pulling” involved. So it is understandable that someone not familiar with the term pull up would not be able to derive an accurate meaning for it. However, as a current teacher of technical writing, I introduce my students to the principles of Plain English, advocating the use of “everyday” English terms, including phrasal verbs such as pull up. I began to wonder if Plain English is, in fact, Obscure English—for those not brought up in an English-speaking environment. That is what led to the study that follows. THE PROBLEM Recent publications on technical and business writing contain a number of articles about international and multicultural issues. This is an area of increasing interest in the field as more business is conducted internationally and as the workforce in businesses worldwide becomes more multicultural. Growing concern with this topic is the impetus behind at least two publications: The May 1999 special issue of Technical communication titled “Global issues, local concerns” edited by Nancy Hoft and Global contexts: Case studies in international technical communication, a book of case studies in international communication edited by Deborah Bosley, published in 2000 as part of the ATTW series by Allyn and Bacon. Even in Memphis, TN, where I live and teach, which has long been isolated from the volume of international business conducted on the coasts of the U.S., local businesses such as FedEx and International Paper have hired the graduates of our program in professional/technical writing to prepare documents that will be read by nonnative speakers of English and translated into other languages. In 1999, I attended a conference on technical writing in Europe at which most of the speakers were concerned with product documentation. It was clear from the discussion there that writers and editors were applying those principles of writing typically taught in technical