Category: Uncategorized

We’d like to welcome Claudia Mont’Alvão as our association’s first Brazilian PLAIN Ambassador.

Claudia was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She got her degree in Industrial Design, but since her Ph.D., she has been involved in studies about information.

She dedicated the last two decades to studying Human Factors/ Ergonomics focusing on information’s accessibility and comprehensibility, considering primarily pictograms and warnings. In 2018 she started her studies in Plain Language and Information Design and joined PLAIN shortly after.

She supervised the first Plain Language academic study in a Graduate Program in Design in Brazil. This Master’s dissertation researched the impact of writing style on the comprehensibility of digital public services, presented by Heloisa Fischer, a PLAIN member.

What is a PLAIN ambassador?
To ensure that PLAIN is truly international, we are looking for individuals to support our strategic goals at the regional level around the world. Specifically:

• to foster and support local/regional plain language initiatives
• to increase engagement, insight and action within regional networks.

An ambassador will provide a localized perspective to international discussions within PLAIN. At the same time, they will promote the principles of plain language in their region or language and be a contact for people interested in joining PLAIN. An ambassador is action-oriented, fosters positive personal relationships, connects people, and listens to conversations throughout the field.

Brigitte is a social communicator and a theater actress. She’s the leader of the plain language strategy in Colombia and the Directorate of Participation, Transparency and Citizen Service of the Administrative Department of the Public Function of Colombia, an entity that leads the National Policy of Citizen Service, the birthplace of plain language.

Founding member of the Colombian Plain Language Network, co-author of pedagogical tools and plain language guidelines. In love with the public sector and the collaborative construction of a State that is increasingly inclusive and closer to the needs of the people.

In her career as editor, teacher, advisor, and lawyer, she has seen the negative effects of traditional writing on an individual, institutional and social scale. For this, she has seen the need to innovate writing. In 2018, she created the Fundación Escribir, which projects, Proyecto Lenguaje Claro and Proyecto Nacional de Escritura, seek to transform communication and education, respectively.

One of her current functions is to design and impart plain language courses for mediation centers, companies and professionals from the public and private sectors.

She is doctor in jurisprudence (U. Catolica del Ecuador) and has a master’s degree in education and in the teaching of writing (University of Maine, USA).

PhD. In Spanish Philology, CEO of CÁLAMO&CRAN, PUBLISHNEWS and EnClaro (Spanish Plain Language). Member of PALABRAS MAYORES. Co-founder of UniCo and SEA (Spanish Editors Association). Honorary member of La Casa del Corrector, of the Litterae Foundation. Co-author of El libro rojo de C&C (C&C, Madrid, 2013), 199 recetas infalibles para expresarse bien (Vox, Barcelona, 2015), Dilo bien y dilo claro (Larousse, Barcelona, 2017), and author of La mano invisible: confesiones de un corrector iconoclasta (CSIC, Madrid, 2019). He is a passionate and entertaining teacher, and an enthusiastic communicator of language.