Forschungsprojekte


IC CLEAR - European postgraduate training course in clear communication

Gerhard Benetka, Stefan Hampl und Amrei Jörchel

Laufzeit: 3 Jahre

With this project, the members of the consortium wish to respond to the expected increase in demand for clear, easy-to-understand information and the lack of well-trained clear communication professionals.

Clear information to us, whether online or in print, is information that is focused on readers:

People for whom the information is intended should quickly and easily

  • find what they need,

  • understand what they find,

  • be able to act appropriately on that understanding.

This means that whether or not information is ‘clear’ depends on the audience. What is clear for one reader, may not be clear for another one.

Professional clear communication practitioners use everything what is necessary (language, design and usability techniques) to make information clear and understandable for the intended audience. In a clear document people find information faster, understand it accurately, and are more satisfied with it.

All around the world individual plain language and/or design practitioners already work on documents and websites to make them clear, but apart from the Plain Swedish Consultancy Program at Stockholm University (with a focus on language) there’s no proper higher education training course available to become a professional clear communication practitioner.