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The Role of Plain Language in Qualitative Research

Hello Qualitative Mind,

Plain language is a topic that often comes up in my work in health research, and it always makes me feel guilty because it’s not my forte, and I’ll explain why. But first, what is plain language? Plain language describes a way of communicating –verbally or written- that is clear, concise and simple. It practices using simple terms that a majority of audiences can easily understand. Are you wondering why communicating in plain language is not easy for me? Well, it all starts with how I learned English as a second language.

I’ve shared bits and pieces about me here and in Cathy Mazak’s podcast so you might or might not know that I was born, raised, and married in Brazil. Portuguese is my mother tongue. I learned English in formal settings (ESL Schools in Brazil and at the University of British Columbia in Canada). I know many rules you might never have heard of as a native English speaker but still naturally practice them. Another interesting fact is that Portuguese is a “Romance Language” derived from Latin and, because of that, many words I tend to use sound very formal in English. That’s is all to say, communicating in plain language requires an immense effort on my part.

Recently, I was part of a discussion about the readability level of a survey and it made me think about readability levels in qualitative research. Most Canadians read at a Grade 6 to Grade 8 level so using plain language is key! There are many documents you can find with a simple Google search that will give you a plain language checklist. By going through some of them I was able to see how I can use two simple strategies to improve my communication skills as a qualitative researcher.

The first strategy relates to understanding your participants as you are designing an interview or focus group guide. The harder you work to understand their sociocultural contexts before collecting data, the more likely you will be to talk in a way that makes sense to them. This commonly means being concise, avoiding jargons and long words, as well as avoiding acronyms that might be a no-brainer to you but not to your participants. For example, the women who participated in my PhD research attended community-based programs in Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). “CBOs” was in my vocabulary, and seemed so easy and direct, but it was not in women’s day-to-day language because they called the organization something else that resonated with them.

The other strategy I know I can use (yet I admit I rarely do) is the readability score test through Microsoft Word. If you go into your preferences, you can set it up so that every time you check the word count, you also get the reading level. For the sake of being transparent, this document reads at a Grade 10 Level. What do you do if you need to lower the reading level? The simplest way, in my opinion, is to look for long/hard words and try to replace them with shorter/simpler words. Here are a few examples I found in the Easy Does It! Plain Language and Clear Verbal Communication by the National Literacy and Health Program and the Canadian Public Health Association:

Hard -> Plain

Accompany -> Go with

Assist -> Help

Demonstrate -> Show

Initiate -> Start

Occur -> Happen

And the list goes on...In some situations the research topic might involve a hard word or even a complex concept and, in this case, it’s worth defining it with your participants at the beginning of an interviewor focus group. Another example from my research- I used the Household Food Security Survey Module from the Canadian Community Health Survey for one of my PhD studies, and one of the things the research team had to do before giving the survey to participants was define a “balanced diet.” Our project followed the principles of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) so we discussed the definition with community stakeholders who would be participating in the study. A balanced diet for me was about a variety of foods that would be optional for my nutritional status whereas for the community participants it was about affording many foods they would like to eat and have in their diets. This is a powerful example of how important it is to understand your participants’ realities prior to engaging in research activities.

I promise to continue working on my communication skills, and I hope this blog post sparks some curiosity and interest in your ability to use plain language in your qualitative research and writing.

Talk soon,

Maira Quintanilha

Maira QuintanilhaComment