"For Health's Sake-Write It in Basic English!"

Abstract

Every year the public health clinics of this country give away-millions of pamphlets. So do insurance companies. So do astrologers and patent-medicine manufacturers. So do Jehovah's Witnesses, the Sons and Daughters of David, agencies of government, and, in fact, everyone who wishes in some way to influence or instruct the public. The paper devoted to these pamphlets probably wastes every year a forest or two of pulp wood, and sizable ponds of ink. Just beyond the printing presses await thousands of wastepaper dealers and scavengers to cart away the remains. What happens to the public somewhere between the printing presses and the waste-paper dealers? Probably, in most cases, nothing at all. Many people for whom pamphlets are intended can't read them; others won't read them. Many pamphlets are misunderstood, or soon forgotten; hardly any have traceable effects upon either public opinion or action. Pamphleteers love to write in the King's English. They assume falsely that millions of people are well educated. They forget that as many as two adults in five in nation-wide studies have been found to have a reading ability of the fifth grade, or less. Or, as shown by the 1940 United States Census Report, that thirty per cent of the entire populations of -some states never goes beyond the fourth grade in school. And, in many cases, the public's failure to read beautifully written pamphlets is indeed a blessing. The money people would waste in buying Dr. Post's Pain Pulverizer, or Dr. Quack's Cancer Corrective, in case the public read the sales pamphlets put out by the manufacturers, is more wisely invested in War Bonds and Stamps, or in having a rousing good time. But it is a different matter in the case of the public health clinics. The pamphlets these agencies distribute are intended to tell poorly educated people how to prepare for an expected baby, how to avoid diseases, and how to cooperate in campaigns to eliminate certain health hazards to themselves and their communities. If these pamphlets are mis-read, or not read, evil days may fall upon both individuals and communities. In any case the result is a waste of scientific knowledge among people who need it and have few other ways of getting it. One of the writers of this article became aware of the reading needs of poorly educated people while serving as medical social worker at the Slossfield Health Center of Birmingham, Alabama. Funds put up by the State of Alabama, Jefferson County (where Birmingham is), the Federal Government, private industry and philanthropy, maintain Slossfield Health Center to give free or part-pay medical care to Negroes who can't afford