word length

Write like the Times: Keep words short

The newspaper of record covers rocket science & brain surgery in simple terms

When I recommend to my clients that they limit their word length to 5 characters per word, they roll their eyes and chortle.… Read the full article

What is the word length effect?

Long words are stuffy and hard to read

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

Take a tip from Barry: Avoid multisyllabic exhibitions of verbosity.… Read the full article

How to avoid noun phrases

They suck the energy out of your copy

There’s nothing like noun phrases to make a tight sentence long, to transform clear, conversational language into stuffy bureaucratese:

“It is the intention of this team to facilitate the improvement of our company’s processes.”

… Read the full article

How to write great headlines for the web

Frontload headlines to putting the topic up top

When it comes to web heads, focus on the front.

That is, place your topic words at the beginning of your headline.… Read the full article

What is a good readability score?

Benchmark readability against The Huffington Post

How does your message stand up against The Huffington Post?

After all, The Huffington Post is the third most popular online news site, after only Yahoo!… Read the full article

Sentence length, word length make messages more readable

Want to see your Flesch Kincaid Grade Level drop? Your Flesch Reading Ease soar? Your Automated Readability Index hit the right target?… Read the full article

Readability smackdown

Master Class grads boost readability by up to 300%

One of my favorite parts of my Catch Your Reader Master Class is our Cut Through the Clutter smackdown.… Read the full article

Three ways to streamline sentences

Cut a word, increase comprehension

Here’s the problem with long sentences: Every time you add a word, you reduce comprehension.

Let your sentences sprawl, and the subject, verb and object get too far away from each other.… Read the full article