How Plain Is the English in Your Apartment Lease?

Have you read your apartment lease carefully? Did you understand it? Many students-and their friends and family members-are intimi- dated, frustrated, or just plain lost when they try to comprehend an apartment lease.

Your Task. Locate an apartment lease-yours, a friend's, or a fam- ily member's. In teams, analyze its format and readability. What size is the paper? How large are the margins? Is the type large or small? How much white space appears on the page? Are paragraphs and sentences long or short? Does the lease contain legalese or obscure language? What makes it difficult to understand? In an e-mail message to your instructor, summarize your team's reaction to the lease. Your instructor may ask you to revise sections or the entire lease to make it more readable. In class, discuss how ethical it is for an apartment owner to expect a renter to read and comprehend a lease while sitting in the rental office.