Working on administrative language at the Institute for the Languages of Finland is above all a question of influencing society. It not only requires expertise in language use but also knowledge of public administration as well as networking and contacts with various interest groups. Influencing society is therefore both the end and the means of our operations.

My own speciality is the language of public welfare and social services, in particular that of benefit decisions and their justifications. As a genre researcher, my area of expertise includes not only the texts themselves but the processes through which they are produced in various offices and bureaus, as well as how they are interpreted by the citizens, customers and patients who read them. Doing this allows one to build real administrative expertise. An expert on benefit applications has no shortage of employment opportunities, as the Social Insurance Institute (Kela) makes 10 million benefit decisions a year. My work includes training and consulting, but it can also lead me to deliver speeches at such places as the Disability Services Congress, the Open Finland event or the Parliament of Finland.

Recent years have been taken up by group work. I was in the the Ministry of Education and Culture’s administrative language working group, the group developing the system of insurance doctors for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and the preparatory committee for the Open Government project for the Ministry of Finance.

Many of the problems in administrative texts are the result of other factors than the skills of their writers. That is why it is necessary to for us to work where administration is otherwise being developed. The production of texts is central to administration, and organisations have been set up largely for that purpose. However, new legislation alone is insufficient to change the way we use language.

Lisätietoa:

• “Virkakielen parantaminen toisi miljoonasäästöt” (‘Improvements to administrative language would save millions of euros’), Helsingin Sanomat July 8, 2015
• “Hyvää virkakieltä” (‘Clear administrative language’), Virallinen lehti January 7, 2015
• “Sote ja hyvinvointipiste – huonoja nimityksiä, sanoo virkakielen tutkija” (‘Sote [Social welfare and health care reform] and welfare point are unclear terms, says researcher of administrative language’), YLE News March 10, 2015
• “Hallinnon keskittäminen tuottaa vaikeaa kieltä”, (‘Centralisation produces unclear administrative language’) Turun Sanomat October 13, 2014

•