Aim for the 3rd-grade reading level
How easy should email newsletters and e-blasts be to read? Very easy, according to a study of more than 40 million emails by Boomerang.… Read the full article
Readability
What’s the best subheading format?
Think contrast, hierarchy
Subheads tell readers what content exists on a page and how different sections relate to the others. That guides readers to the copy they want to read and shows them how the parts fit together.… Read the full article
Why is readability important to your readers?
Readable messages help everyone
I recently attended a conference where the Nielsen Norman Group unveiled its latest eyetracking research. After more than 20 years in the lab, watching people read and respond to text, they reported this finding:
“This is too easy to read.”
… Read the full articleWorld technology literacy skills: bad and getting worse
16% of adults are technologically illiterate
Just 8% of adults around the world can manage conflicting requests to reserve a meeting room using a reservation system, then email people to let them know whether they got the room they requested.… Read the full article
Write leads for your press release target audience
Move from event to impact
Screenwriter Nora Ephron long remembered the first day of her high school journalism class.
Ephron’s teacher announced the first assignment: to write the lead for a story to appear in the student newspaper.… Read the full article
Are press releases dead? No!
Long live the news release
Twitter has never issued a news release. Amazon introduced the Kindle through a series of tweets. Google announced Alphabet via a blog post from Larry Page.… Read the full article
What closet tidying taught me about editing
Audition your words to go in, not out
When Lynn Wylie, aka Best Sister Ever, sent me an Unfancy blog post arguing that all you need to look great every day is a capsule wardrobe of 37 items per season, I scoffed.… Read the full article
What’s the value of readability [research!]?
Save money, make money and more with readable messages
What are the benefits of making your message measurably easier to read and understand?
Readability formulas measure how easy your message is to read based on average number of words per sentence, percentage of polysyllabic words and familiarity of words on the Dale Chall list.… Read the full article
Benchmark readability against the BBC
How does your news measure up?
The BBC covers the most serious news known to man — West Bank stabbings, friendly fire air strikes, Justin Bieber’s bad behavior — and does so in an average of 4.7-character words.… Read the full article
How do you define readability?
Measure, monitor and manage your message’s reading ease
How do you define readability? Readability measures how easy your message is to read. That measurement is based on factors like sentence and word length.… Read the full article