Guide to fostering the readability of legislative texts
The January 2012 report the Red Tape Reduction Commission recommended "that the Department of Justice continue to develop tools to foster the intelligibility of legislative texts" to improve the clarity and predictability of regulation for business and improve understanding of regulatory requirements. This document does not intend to repeat the content of related textbooks, manuals, guides and articles. It provides instead a general approach to drafting legislative texts that are accessible to their readers; it is about viewing legislative texts through a particular lens to evaluate their readability.
The primary focus of the guide is teaching those who write and develop legislative and regulatory texts to evaluate what can be done to make these texts more accessible, and demonstrate the steps that should be taken. It provides examples as to why language should be kept as simple as possible, and of preambles that would be considered readable.
- Publisher - Current Organization Name: Department of Justice Canada
- Publisher - Organization Name at Publication: Department of Justice
- Licence: Open Government Licence - Canada
Data and Resources
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Guide to the fostering of the readability of legislative textsHTMLEnglish guide HTML
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Guide to fostering the readability of legislative textsHTMLFrench guide HTML