1Up Your Writing with Plain Language
Ashley Bischoff
1Up Your Writing with Plain Language
By Ashley Bischoff
Tweet along at #PlainWriting
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What makes some writing more complicated than others?
How do I know if my writing is complicated?
It comes down to sentence length and syllables.
For example, here’s a terrible sentence from part of the W3C’s accessibility guidelines :
Readability formulas are available for at least some languages when running the spell checkers in popular software if you specify in the options of this engine that you want to have the statistics when it has finished checking your documents.
The more complex the material, the shorter the sentences should be.
You also want variety.
You should have a few 35-word sentences and some 3-word sentences.
Just aim for an average of around 20-some words.
That terrible sentence from that W3C write-up is easier to read once it’s split into smaller sentences:
Readability formulas are often available when running the spellchecker in your word processor.
You can specify options to show those statistics when it’s finished checking your document.
Sentence length is half the battle.
Cutting syllables is the other half.
You can think of words as Tetris pieces.
Syllables are the building blocks of words.
You can think of one-syllable words (such as “so”) like 2-block Tetris pieces.
And you can think of two-syllable words (such as “update”) like 3-block Tetris pieces.
Things start to get a bit tricky with three-syllable words, which amount to 5-block Tetris pieces.
And four-syllable words, which are like 7-block Tetris pieces, don’t make things any easier.
And when it comes to five-syllable words, well, they’re about as much fun as toothpaste with orange juice.
Sometimes long words might be unavoidable.
And if you were to be saddled with one or two of these in a Tetris game, you might be able to get by.
But the game just wouldn’t be fun anymore if you were to be handed huge pieces like these over and over and over.
“prior to” → “before”
That takes you from 3 syllables… to 2.
“I proofread the report prior to the meeting.”
“I proofread the report before the meeting.”
“commence” → “start”
That takes you from 2 syllables… to 1.
“We will commence user interviews on Tuesday.”
“We will start user interviews on Tuesday.”
“sufficient” → “enough”
That takes you from 3 syllables… to 2.
“We don’t have sufficient staff to run a beta test.”
“We don’t have enough staff to run a beta test.”
“in order to” → “to”
That takes you from 4 syllables… to 1.
“Use the dropdown in order to select a flight.”
“Use the dropdown to select a flight.”
“accordingly” or “consequently” → “so”
That takes you from 4 syllables… to 1.
“We’ve lost power.
“We’ve lost power.
“the following” → “this”
That takes you from 4 syllables… to 1.
“Use the guidelines in the following table:”
“Use the guidelines in this table:”
“The app supports the following keyboard shortcuts:”
“The app supports these keyboard shortcuts:”
“However” → “But”
That takes you from 3 syllables… to 1.
“That works in Firefox.
“That works in Firefox.
But when it comes to syllables,
There’s one trick that makes more of a difference than any of these: contractions.
“do not” → “don’t”
That takes you from 2 syllables… to 1.
“cannot” → “can’t”
That takes you from 2 syllables… to 1.
Here’s what Tom discovered across his analysis of newspapers and magazines in particular:
contraction
use in newspapers & magazines
don’t
7.7 times more often than “do not”
can’t
2.9 times more often than “cannot”
doesn’t
2.8 times more often than “does not”
didn’t
2.7 times more often than “did not”
won’t
2.6 times more often than “will not”
The tide has turned.
And what was once avoided in some contexts is now commonplace.
And style guides have been on board the contraction train for years.
Invariably, movie robots end up saying stuff like—
I will be glad to see them if they do not get mad.
—rather than—
I’ll be glad to see them if they don’t get mad.
They do that because screenwriters know that the easiest way to make anyone sound like a robot is to take away all their contractions.
And while that may sound like a cheap trick, it works every time.
So the next time you’re writing something up at work, ask yourself this:
Do I want to sound like
Or do I want to sound like a person?
Here’s how you can check your readability.
Once you’re at the Readability Analyzer , paste your content into the text box, and the site will calculate your text’s readability numbers.
To keep your text readable,
Looks like those W3C bits don’t fare too well.
How does this play out in real life?
Have you ever wondered how well emergency weather alerts would go over if they were written at a college reading level?
We are becoming optimistic that the Carolinas and the mid-Atlantic states will avoid the direct effects from [Hurricane] Joaquin. However, we cannot yet completely rule out direct impacts along the east coast, and residents there should continue to follow the progress of Joaquin over the next couple of days.
National Weather Service Alert from October 1, 2015
That paragraph has a Flesch-Kincaid reading-grade level of 13.4.
Chances are getting better that Joaquin won’t affect the Carolinas or the states from New York through Virginia.
But we can’t yet rule out that the east coast could still be affected.
So those who live on the east coast should keep following our updates about Joaquin over the next few days.
And how does that version stack up?
The revised version has a Flesch-Kincaid reading-grade level of 7.6.
Bonus tip—
Don’t ever worry about a reading-grade level being “too low.”
Because no one has ever complained that something was too easy to read.
@FriendlyAshley
words: @FriendlyAshley /
a11y: @HandCoding
