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Plain Language Revision and Insider Audiences: a City Charter Case Study a Dissertation SUBMITTED Plain Language Revision and Insider Audiences: A City Charter Case Study A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Kira A. Dreher IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ADVISOR: LEE-ANN KASTMAN BREUCH MAY 2017 © KIRA DREHER 2017 Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my committee for their support of my dissertation. I am especially grateful to my advisor, Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch, for her guidance, time, and immeasurable encouragement. I also want to thank Richard Graff for offering insight and support throughout this project and my time at UMN. Christina Haas, though not on my committee, has been a tremendous influence on my development as a scholar and my approach to research. I also want to thank Carol Berkenkotter, who drew me to Minnesota and advised me in my first two years as a graduate student. Next I wish to acknowledge the support of my fellow graduate students. Chris Lindgren and Rachel Tofteland-Trampe—my cohort—have supported me, challenged me, and taught me so much in the past five years. Sarah Puett has been a steadfast source of personal and professional strength for me, as well. These people have graciously read my dissertation work in various stages, helped me to form the project and to develop my identity in our field. I’ve been fortunate to work with other wonderful grad students in Writing Studies, including Abigail Bakke, Elizabeth Mackey, Jarron Slater, Ashley Clayson, Joe Bartolotta, Megan McGrath, Dawn Armfield, Brigitte Mussack, Laura Pigozzi, and Evelyn Meisnebacher. In addition, I want to recognize the support of English and other graduate students and friends, including Amy Bolis, Lillian Wang, Vivian Wauters, Jen-Chou Liu, Marc Juberg, and Asa Olson. All of these folks deserve mention for showing support for my work, but also because—whether they know it or not—they have served as an extended family to me, my partner, and our children here in Minnesota. They’ve kept me (somewhat) social, provided parenting advice and solidarity, driven me to the airport, brought me meals, served as emergency contacts for my kids, and countless other acts of kindness for which I remain grateful. I want to thank the Department of Writing Studies for supporting my dissertation and Donald Ross for his devoted work as DGS. I surely would not have made it without the patience and assistance of Shannon Klug and Nan Nelson. Barb Jensen also seamlessly walked me through maternity leave and I am very grateful. I would be remiss if I did not also recognize a handful of people who helped me to get to this program in the first place. Since my time at Carnegie Mellon, David Kaufer has been a mentor and a significant influence on my career. Susan Hagan and Alex Cheek have also been close friends and respected colleagues who continue to lend me support. Last, I want to thank my family and friends. My parents and the numerous parental figures I’ve been fortunate to collect over my lifetime have offered unparalleled support. My husband, Jeff, has been a foundation for me over this journey, which has not only included both of our doctoral programs but also the building of our family. I thank my two daughters, Anza and Ada, for the motivation and joy they provide. I also thank Grete and Scoutie. Their walks with me and Jeff were critical sites of dissertation idea development. i Dedication To my daughters, Anza and Adaline. ii Abstract This dissertation explores the relationship of plain language—a popular strategy for creating effective, ethical, and cost-effective texts—and audience. Specifically, it examines the impacts of plain language revision on insider and expert audiences in the case of a city charter plain-language revision. Through qualitative analysis and a genre theory approach, I found that the plain language charter affected insiders through various sites of interplay, or residual connections between the old and new charters. Insiders and experts contended with an interplay of charter authorities, as well as an interplay of practices, which included easier individual reading and improved government processes. In addition, through an interplay between genres, the plain language charter affected the form of other texts in the government. This project has implications for technical and professional communication research and practice. It also has implications for rhetorical theory, as the project inquires into what plainness currently is and does for writers and audiences. I explore plainness as a durable rhetorical style type that is currently bound up with an ideology favoring public access and participation in expert spheres. I also take up Devitt’s (2009) call to refigure form and style into studies of genre—a framework that I show is enriching for context- focused research into plain language. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. i Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ......................................................................................................................v Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1 Purpose and Significance of this Study ...................................................................5 Project Overview and Research Questions ..............................................................8 Overview of Dissertation Chapters ........................................................................10 Chapter 2: Plain Style, Plain Language, and Genre: A Review of Research and Theoretical Approach .........................................................................................................12 Tracing the History of Plainness in Rhetoric and Technical Communication .......13 Plainness in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries ..................................................34 Current Research Advances Plain language in Terms of Non-Expert Audiences .40 Theoretical Framework: Rhetorical Genre Studies ................................................45 Chapter 3: Methods ............................................................................................................56 Case Study Design .................................................................................................58 Case Description ....................................................................................................59 Data Sources and Collection ..................................................................................67 Data Analysis Methods ..........................................................................................71 Chapter 4: What is Plain Language in the City Charter? ...................................................81 Conceptions of Audience .......................................................................................82 Genre and The City Charter Revision ....................................................................93 Style in the Charter Revision ...............................................................................112 Quantitative Differences between Charter Versions ............................................118 Chapter Summary: What is Plain Language in the Plain Language Charter? .....123 Chapter 5: The Impacts of Plain Language for Insiders ..................................................125 Interplay of Authority ..........................................................................................127 Interplay of Practice .............................................................................................140 Inter-genre-al Interplay ........................................................................................157 Chapter Summary: Plain-Language Impacts for Insiders ....................................160 iv Chapter 6: Conclusions and Further Research .................................................................163 RQ1: What is “plain language” in the plain language charter? ...........................164 RQ2: How does plain language affect the way city government insiders make sense of the city charter? .....................................................................................165 RQ3: How does plain language effect the tasks city government insiders must complete with the charter? ..................................................................................165 Additional Findings: The Role of Form in Genre ................................................167 Implications and Future Considerations ..............................................................171 References ........................................................................................................................181 Appendices .......................................................................................................................188 v List of Tables Table 1: List of City Charter Commission and City Council Observations ......................68 Table 2: Interviewees and their affiliated government departments and ID tags ..............70 Table 3: Ten sample initial and in vivo Codes from Coding Cycle 1 ................................74 Table
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