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Day 18 - Reading level and plain language

Let's get back to the basics, the content that makes up the majority of a page. This content could be headings, intro copy, blog posts, instructions, or anything that someone could read on your site.

Ideally, you should be writing the content of your site for a 7-9th grade reading level.

Reading level combined with writing in plain language helps every visitor. The more people and search engines understand the content on your site the more likely they are to rely on and interact with it.

Lastly, the​ Plain Writing Act of 2010​ outlines what plain language is, “Writing that is clear, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices appropriate to the subject or field and intended audience.”

Even if you don't pass every piece of content through a reading-level analyzer, the principles are:

  • Reader-centered organization
  • “You” and other pronouns
  • Active voice, not passive
  • Short sentences and paragraphs
  • Common, everyday words
  • Easy-to-follow design features (lists, headers, tables)

This email itself started at a grade 15 reading level, after many revisions, it is now a grade 8 reading level.

Example

Screenshot of text in the Hemingway editor showing a hard to read sentence and the word participate which should be replaced or omited

Hemingway outlines each sentence and word giving suggestions for improvements

This example shows a few sentences that pack a lot of information into a short space. There are several complex words that Hemingway suggests switching to provide the same meaning with a lower reading level.

Task

  1. Find any piece of content on your site, it could be part of or an entire page
  2. Copy/paste it into the Hemming Way app (below) or paste the URL into the Juicy Readability test
  3. Analyze the reading level to determine if it is appropriate for the content and audience
  4. Make adjustments to continue to get to the same goal but at a lower reading level
  5. Continue to do this for the top pages on your website

Considerations

  • Reading behavior of digital text is different than reading physical items
  • Use your website analytics to determine search terms or popular pages to prioritize
  • The recommendations that come out of these reading level tools are helpful to solidify in an editorial style guide for yourself and any other site editor to remember over time
  • If the content of a page can’t be made more readable, a summary or supplemental content should be supplied

Further resources