Revision history for PartisanLanguage
Additions:
Vote Smart is committed to providing nonpartisan information to the public. We cannot allow any partisan language to be included in bill summaries or titles. The general rule of thumb is to avoid any language that seemingly casts the legislation in a positive or negative light. This includes language that tends to be used exclusively by those on one side of an issue. Sometimes this leads to the use of more technical language, but at times common language has to be sacrificed in order to maintain nonpartisan writing.
The following are the most common examples of partisan language that need to be avoided:
- "Partial Birth Abortion" - Replace with “Dilation and Evacuation Abortion.”
- "Tax Relief" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be reduced. This also applies to phrases like “regulatory relief.”
- Names of individual's inserted to help sell the legislation (ex: "Amy's Law" or "Laci and Connor's Law") - Avoid the name altogether and focus solely on the specifics of the law. If you think that members of the public will not be able to recognize the law without the name, you may include something like “commonly known as Amy's Law” at the end of the synopsis.
- “Woman” or “Women” in abortion regulations - replace with “Patient.”
- “School Choice” - replace with “Voucher Program,” “Open Enrollment,” or something else specific to the legislation.
- Anything that suggests that the legislation is necessarily improving the situation or circumstances. The wording can be explicit or implied. (ex: "Government Reform," "Improving Economically Distressed Areas," "Reducing Unemployment," and "Enhancing Public Safety"). Focus on what the legislation is actually doing.
At times legislation will use very broad language that may seem partisan. This can cause difficulty in summarizing because there may be no way to accurately summarize the bill without using the potentially partisan language. At these times you should use quotation marks around the term from the bill. This allows us to write a summary that is as accurate as possible while protecting the organization from accusations of partisanship. Below is an example from a bill that contains the phrase “consistently ineffective.”
The following are the most common examples of partisan language that need to be avoided:
- "Partial Birth Abortion" - Replace with “Dilation and Evacuation Abortion.”
- "Tax Relief" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be reduced. This also applies to phrases like “regulatory relief.”
- Names of individual's inserted to help sell the legislation (ex: "Amy's Law" or "Laci and Connor's Law") - Avoid the name altogether and focus solely on the specifics of the law. If you think that members of the public will not be able to recognize the law without the name, you may include something like “commonly known as Amy's Law” at the end of the synopsis.
- “Woman” or “Women” in abortion regulations - replace with “Patient.”
- “School Choice” - replace with “Voucher Program,” “Open Enrollment,” or something else specific to the legislation.
- Anything that suggests that the legislation is necessarily improving the situation or circumstances. The wording can be explicit or implied. (ex: "Government Reform," "Improving Economically Distressed Areas," "Reducing Unemployment," and "Enhancing Public Safety"). Focus on what the legislation is actually doing.
At times legislation will use very broad language that may seem partisan. This can cause difficulty in summarizing because there may be no way to accurately summarize the bill without using the potentially partisan language. At these times you should use quotation marks around the term from the bill. This allows us to write a summary that is as accurate as possible while protecting the organization from accusations of partisanship. Below is an example from a bill that contains the phrase “consistently ineffective.”
Deletions:
The following are the most common examples of partisan language that need to be avoided, as recommended by our advisors:
- "Partial Birth Abortion" - Replace with "Partial Birth/Late Term Abortion."
- "Tax Relief" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be reduced.
- "Gaming" - Replace with "gambling," unless the word Gaming is used in a title (ex: Gaming Commission).
- "Recreational Marijuana" - Replace with "Retail Marijuana."
- Names of individual's inserted to help sell the legislation (ex: "Amy's Law" or "Laci and Connor's Law") - Avoid the name altogether and focus solely on the specifics of the law.
- Anything that suggests that the legislation is necessarily improving the situation or circumstances. The wording can be explicit or implied. (ex: "Government Reform," "Improving Economically Distressed Areas," "Reducing Unemployment," and "Enhancing Public Safety"). Focus on what specifically the legislation is doing, such that an individual reading the summary can understand what it's attempting to improve.
Legislation sometimes contains language that is widely open to interpretation, and including that language in your summary might suggest some level of support for its intentions. However, this creates a conundrum because you also don't want to distort the language of the legislation. The solution to this problem is to still utilize the language, but put quotation marks around it to indicate that you are simply quoting the legislation. Here is an example: SB 638 from Michigan during the 2009 Session. This bill allows for the termination or demotion of a teacher if they are found to be "consistently ineffective." Of course, such terminology is open to interpretation. Therefore, as it is presented in this manual, the phrase "consistently ineffective" must be placed in quotation marks. This is one of the highlights from the summary (bold added for emphasis):
Additions:
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[[CategoryKeyVotes Key Votes Homepage]] | [[UTInternTraining Training Guide]] | [[SummaryWritingGuide Summary Writing Guide]] | [[VoteEnteringGuide Vote Entering Guide]] | [[CongressGuide Congress Guide]] | [[StatusUpdateGuide Status Update Guide]] | [[WebCheckGuide Web Check Guide]]
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======Summary Writing - Partisan Language======----
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Additions:
~& //—Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and publish standards for a controlling board to use to determine whether a tenured teacher is **"consistently ineffective"** (Sec. 1a). //
~& //—Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
—$45.5 million for school districts and charter schools through the state equalization guaranteed distribution;
—$20 million for the appropriation account of the General Fund; and
—$13.4 million for public post-secondary educational institutions in the instruction and general purpose category; and
—$2 million for the Workforce Solutions Department for operating expenditures.//
~& //—Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
—$45.5 million for school districts and charter schools through the state equalization guaranteed distribution;
—$20 million for the appropriation account of the General Fund; and
—$13.4 million for public post-secondary educational institutions in the instruction and general purpose category; and
—$2 million for the Workforce Solutions Department for operating expenditures.//
Deletions:
~& //- Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
- $45.5 million for school districts and charter schools through the state equalization guaranteed distribution;
- $20 million for the appropriation account of the General Fund; and
- $13.4 million for public post-secondary educational institutions in the instruction and general purpose category; and
- $2 million for the Workforce Solutions Department for operating expenditures.//
Additions:
- "Recreational Marijuana" - Replace with "Retail Marijuana."
Additions:
- "Unborn child" - Replace with "Fetus."
- Anything that suggests that the legislation is necessarily improving the situation or circumstances. The wording can be explicit or implied. (ex: "Government Reform," "Improving Economically Distressed Areas," "Reducing Unemployment," and "Enhancing Public Safety"). Focus on what specifically the legislation is doing, such that an individual reading the summary can understand what it's attempting to improve.
- Anything that suggests that the legislation is necessarily improving the situation or circumstances. The wording can be explicit or implied. (ex: "Government Reform," "Improving Economically Distressed Areas," "Reducing Unemployment," and "Enhancing Public Safety"). Focus on what specifically the legislation is doing, such that an individual reading the summary can understand what it's attempting to improve.
Deletions:
Additions:
Quotation marks may also be used to clarify certain mentioned pieces of legislation. In the following example, the bill being summarized refers to another bill by its official title, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This bill is better known popularly as the "stimulus bill". However, since this is not the official name of the bill, and since the word "stimulus" can be interpreted to be partisan, this would be included in order to ensure that the reader is aware of exactly which bill is being discussed, but it would be enclosed in quotes to denote the unofficial and possibly partisan nature of the phrase.
Additions:
==Common Partisan Terminology==
==Utilizing Quotation Marks==
~& //- Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and publish standards for a controlling board to use to determine whether a tenured teacher is **"consistently ineffective"** (Sec. 1a). //
~& //- Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
==Utilizing Quotation Marks==
~& //- Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and publish standards for a controlling board to use to determine whether a tenured teacher is **"consistently ineffective"** (Sec. 1a). //
~& //- Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
Deletions:
__Utilizing Quotation Marks__
//- Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and publish standards for a controlling board to use to determine whether a tenured teacher is **"consistently ineffective"** (Sec. 1a). //
//- Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
Additions:
__Common Partisan Terminology__
- "Partial Birth Abortion" - Replace with "Partial Birth/Late Term Abortion."
- "Illegal Immigration," "Illegal Alien," "Undocumented Alien," etc. - Replace with "Undocumented Immigrant."
- "Reform" - Replace with language that explains that that section of the law is being amended.
- "Tax Relief" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be reduced.
- "Tax Hike" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be increased.
- "Gaming" - Replace with "gambling," unless the word Gaming is used in a title (ex: Gaming Commission).
- Names of individual's inserted to help sell the legislation (ex: "Amy's Law" or "Laci and Connor's Law") - Avoid the name altogether and focus solely on the specifics of the law.
- Anything that suggests that the legislation is necessarily improving the situation or circumstances. The wording can be explicit or implied. (ex: "Improving Economically Distressed Areas," "Reducing Unemployment," and "Enhancing Public Safety"). Focus on what specifically the legislation is doing, such that an individual reading the summary can understand what it's attempting to improve.
- "Partial Birth Abortion" - Replace with "Partial Birth/Late Term Abortion."
- "Illegal Immigration," "Illegal Alien," "Undocumented Alien," etc. - Replace with "Undocumented Immigrant."
- "Reform" - Replace with language that explains that that section of the law is being amended.
- "Tax Relief" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be reduced.
- "Tax Hike" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be increased.
- "Gaming" - Replace with "gambling," unless the word Gaming is used in a title (ex: Gaming Commission).
- Names of individual's inserted to help sell the legislation (ex: "Amy's Law" or "Laci and Connor's Law") - Avoid the name altogether and focus solely on the specifics of the law.
- Anything that suggests that the legislation is necessarily improving the situation or circumstances. The wording can be explicit or implied. (ex: "Improving Economically Distressed Areas," "Reducing Unemployment," and "Enhancing Public Safety"). Focus on what specifically the legislation is doing, such that an individual reading the summary can understand what it's attempting to improve.
Deletions:
- "Illegal Immigration," "Illegal Alien," "Undocumented Alien," etc. - Replace with "Undocumented Immigrant"
- "Reform" - Replace with language that explains that that section of the law is being amended
- "Tax Relief" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be reduced
- "Tax Hike" - Replace with language that explains that the tax will be increased
- Names of individual's inserted to help sell the legislation (ex: "Amy's Law" or "Laci and Connor's Law") - Avoid the name altogether and focus solely on the specifics of the law.
This rule can also be applied to common-terminology applied by the media and the general public. In 2009, we frequently encountered this issue when addressing HR 1, the congressional legislation commonly known as the "stimulus bill." However, this raised an issue: the phrase "stimulus bill" suggests that the bill has a positive effect on the economy, which would be considered partisan. Nonetheless, "stimulus bill" is more recognizable than "HR 1" or the title that Congress assigned to the bill: "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." Therefore, we simply combined the two, and we always included quotation marks when using the phrase "stimulus bill." Here is an example: HB 17 from New Mexico. This is one of the highlights from the summary (bold added for emphasis):
Additions:
//- Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and publish standards for a controlling board to use to determine whether a tenured teacher is **"consistently ineffective"** (Sec. 1a). //
//- Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
- $45.5 million for school districts and charter schools through the state equalization guaranteed distribution;
- $20 million for the appropriation account of the General Fund; and
- $13.4 million for public post-secondary educational institutions in the instruction and general purpose category; and
- $2 million for the Workforce Solutions Department for operating expenditures.//
//- Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
- $45.5 million for school districts and charter schools through the state equalization guaranteed distribution;
- $20 million for the appropriation account of the General Fund; and
- $13.4 million for public post-secondary educational institutions in the instruction and general purpose category; and
- $2 million for the Workforce Solutions Department for operating expenditures.//
Deletions:
- Appropriates $80.9 million of the federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 **("stimulus bill")** as follows (Secs. 3 & 8):
- $45.5 million for school districts and charter schools through the state equalization guaranteed distribution;
- $20 million for the appropriation account of the General Fund; and
- $13.4 million for public post-secondary educational institutions in the instruction and general purpose category; and
- $2 million for the Workforce Solutions Department for operating expenditures.
