Hit Return more often

Cut Through the Clutter

Measure, monitor and manage clarity with a cool (free!) tool

Would your message be twice as good if it were half as long? The research says yes: The shorter your piece, the more likely readers are to read your message, understand it and make good decisions based on it.

But most communicators (and, let’s be fair, their reviewers) ignore the research and keep piling on the paragraphs. The result? “You’re not more informed,” writes Tom Rosenstiel, former media critic for the Los Angeles Times. “You’re just numbed.”

Analyze your message for 27 readability metrics and leave with targets, tips and techniques for improving each one.

So how long is too long? What’s the right length for your piece? Your paragraphs? Your sentences? Your words? In this session, you’ll run your team members’ message through a cool (free!) tool to measure, monitor and manage readability.

At Cut Through the Clutter — our two-day hands-on clear-writing master class on June 4-5, 2019 in Minneapolis — you’ll learn how to:

• Analyze your message for 27 readability metrics — and leave with quantifiable targets, tips and techniques for improving each one.
• Increase reading, understanding and sharing with five techniques for cutting your copy significantly.
• Avoid discombobulating readers. Leave this workshop with 11 metrics for reducing sentence length and increasing comprehension.
• Stop getting skipped. Find out how long is too long — and leave with three ways to shorten paragraphs.
• Eliminate multisyllabic pileups from your copy. They’re the No. 1 predictor of poor readability.