Plain Writing Act: 2016 Annual Report
I. Senior Agency Official for Plain Writing
Eric E. Wachter
Director
Office of the Executive Secretariat
wachter.eric@epa.gov
(202) 564-7960
II. Training
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EPA has an online training for all employees who produce documents for the public and for any employee who would like to be trained in plain writing.
- The EPA’s Leadership Development Institute annually holds agencywide plain-writing courses. The course is designed for employees at all levels of the agency. Participants engage in exercises to improve their written communication, decrease muddy language and slang, and eliminate information clutter. This exercise-based workshop focuses on setting quality writing standards with an overall objective to increase productivity, identify problem areas, improve clarity of message and enhance one’s ability to share information to a broad audience.
III. Ongoing compliance/sustaining change
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The national-program and regional offices have designated officials for plain writing who work in collaboration with the senior official. See appendix for a list of the designated officials.
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With institutional knowledge of the unique processes and various documents produced in their offices, these designated officials have implemented processes for ongoing compliance.
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These processes include communications officials’ approval of documents; multi-level managerial review for plain writing; designating plain-writing coordinators in individual offices; and refresher training courses.
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Offices continue to follow plain-writing procedures to satisfy the executive order and administrative orders that predate the Plain Writing Act.
IV. Agency's plain-writing website
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The EPA’s plain-writing website is www.epa.gov/home/plain-writing.
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The site is linked from epa.gov/data.
Appendix: EPA Plain Writing Designated Officials
Office of Administration and Resource Management
- Joanne Oxley
Office of the Administrator
- Eric Wachter
Office of Air and Radiation
- Wanda Farrar
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
- Keith Bartlett
Office of Environmental Information
- Jonda Byrd
Office of the Chief Financial Officer
- Gene Pontillo
Office of the General Counsel
- Aditi Prabhu
Office of the Inspector General
- vacant
Office of International and Tribal Affairs
- Chris Hoff
Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
- vacant
Office of Research and Development
- Dayna Gibbons
Office of Land and Emergency Management (formerly "Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response")
- Nancy Cohen
Office of Water
- Travis Loop
Region 1
- Nancy Grantham
Region 2
- Michael McGowan
Region 3
- Terry White
Region 4
- Bryan Myers
Region 5
- John Peterson
Region 6
- David Gray
Region 7
- vacant
Region 8
- Wendy Dew
Region 9
- Kelly Zito
Region 10
- Charles Bert