Current Ethical Stances in Plain Language Research Across Fields

Currently plain language is studied and used across numerous disciplines and toward many ends. In this pilot study, we built a corpus and coding scheme to track the range of ethical stances taken up by authors studying plain language across various fields, including TPC, health literacy, business and industry, law, the sciences, and others. Overall, our findings show the dramatic dominance of the utilitarian ethical stance across all research, followed by a dialogic ethical stance and others in comparatively few numbers. TPC offers a wide range of ethical stances, including an ethic of social justice unique from the rest of the corpus. This research can help TPC scholars and professionals who operate across these fields to better understand and navigate various ethical priorities. As a pilot, it also serves to begin mapping the terrain for areas of interest for future work.