5 steps to simplifying your message
How can you clarify your message?
The authors of “Complex to Clear: Managing Clarity in Corporate Communication” developed this CLEAR mnemonic for simplifying your subject:
Readability
Measure reading levels with readability indexes
How to calculate readability with the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid and Gunning Fog tests
Since 1847, scholars and others have been measuring how hard copy is to read 1.… Read the full article
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 articleWhat 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
Stop wasting web visitors’ time with puffery
Web visitors ‘get visibly angry’ at verbose sites
Here’s an interesting dichotomy: Killing time is the killer app for mobile devices. But mobile users are in a hurry and “get visibly angry” at verbose sites that waste their time.… Read the full article
What is the literacy rate in the U.S 1993?
27% of Americans can’t write simple messages or letters
What reading grade level should you hit on the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog or other readability indexes?… Read the full article