From Black Codes to Recodification

Miriam F. Williams

CHAPTER I. Introduction: Race, Regulations, and Trust
Traditional Styles of Regulatory Writing
Contemporary Arguments for Plain English Regulations
Organization of Book

CHAPTER II. Case Study I—Texas Black Codes of 1866: Identifying Discourse Markers of Trust
Identifying Discourse Markers of Trust
Discourse Analysis of Texas Black Codes
Findings of Discourse Analysis

CHAPTER III. Texas Laws and Tacit Laws: Redefining Black Labor from "The Nadir" to Civil Rights
Redefining Apprenticeship and Contract Labor
Rationale for Contemporary Studies

CHAPTER IV. Case Study II—Texas Agencies: The Challenge of Evoking Trust
Contextual Inquiry Meeting at State Agency
Artifacts Collected during Contextual Inquiry Study
Process Meeting with Group of Policy Writers
Analysis of Regulatory Writing Tasks

CHAPTER V. Case Study III—Contemporary Black Business Owners: Legalese, Plain English, or Both?
The Focus Group in Context

CHAPTER VI. An Invention Heuristic for Regulatory Writing
Implications of Contextual Inquiry and Focus Group Studies
What Information Do New Policy Writers Need to Know?
What Style Meets the Needs of the Government Agency and the Public?
A Rulemaking Heuristic to Evoke Trust in Distrustful Audiences
Considerations for the Future of Regulatory Writing

APPENDICES
Appendix I: Texas Black Codes in Legalese and Plain English
Appendix II: Rhetorical Analysis of Texas Black Codes in Legalese and Plain English
Appendix III: Contextual Inquiry Transcript
Appendix IV: The Focus Group Meeting

REFERENCES

INDEX