Readability

Writer centered vs. reader centered writing

Stop We-We-ing on reader

It feels so good to talk about ourselves.

Talking about yourself activates the same pleasure centers in the brain as food, money or sex, according to Harvard neuroscientist Diana Tamir and her colleague Jason Mitchell, whose research on the topic was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.… Read the full article

Use WIIFM communication for news release leads

Move from event to impact to engage readers

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

World technology literacy skills: bad and getting worse

21% of adults are technologically illiterate

Just 7% 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 like Churchill — in one-syllable words

‘Short words are best, and old words when short are the best of all’

What do you notice about this passage, excerpted from an article in The Economist?… Read the full article

How to hit the best word length for blog posts, other content

Choose Anglo-Saxon words, write to ‘you’ & more

More than 80 years of readability research demonstrate that short words are easiest to read and understand.… Read the full article

What is word length, and why should you care?

Short words No. 1 predictor of readability

Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry spent eight years teaching businesspeople how to write better. As he told Time magazine:

“I’d lecture a bunch of chemists or engineers about the importance of not saying ‘It would be appreciated if you would contact the undersigned by telephone at your earliest possible convenience,’ and instead saying ‘Please call me as soon as you can.’

… Read the full article

What’s the best length of a word online?

The New York Times averages 4.9 characters

An editor once counseled me to change all the instances of employment in an article to jobs.

Great advice.… Read the full article

Measure, manage & report readability

4 more ways to use reading ease

Paying attention to readability will help you reach readers, improve communication and boost the bottom line. It can also help you manage writers, win debates during the approval process and report measurable communication success.… Read the full article