Tomasz Piekot
Tomasz Piekot has been a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Polish Philology at the University of Wrocław since 2003. His work focuses on discourse analysis, especially the critical study of public and institutional communication. He is the author of around eighty publications, including academic articles as well as books and practical guides on effective communication.
His first book (2006) examined Polish news discourse and the subtle ways media imply editorial bias. A later monograph (2016) explored how multimodal messages—particularly the combination of words and images—convey ideological content, stereotypes, and prejudice.
Since 2012, Piekot has headed the Plain Language Lab at the University of Wrocław, which supports public institutions in reforming Polish administrative communication. His team develops methods for simplifying official texts while preserving their substantive content and improving comprehension, responding to broader concerns about a global decline in Universal Basic Skills (UBS) as defined by the OECD.
He serves as a scientific consultant for numerous plain-language initiatives in institutions such as the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), the National Revenue Administration (KAS), and several local governments. As a public speaker and trainer, he promotes plain language, trains civil servants, and mentors plain-language leaders.
His recent research focuses on simplifying official letters, improving informed-consent forms for anaesthesia, and developing methods for testing the comprehensibility of simplified legal texts.
