When a reader lands on your website, you have seconds to catch their attention before they leave!

By using Plain English, you can move readers of all abilities through your content quickly and efficiently, ensuring they absorb your message before leaving your site.

Plain English is a way of choosing words and layout to encourage people to ‘read’ rather than ‘scan’.  And there’s good news!  Microsoft Word has tools that can help you prepare your documents, emails, and content, so you communicate inclusively and efficiently.

What is plain English?

Plain English involves using language in it’s simplest possible form whilst maintaining the integrity of your message.  It uses less words, and smaller words.  You can further enhance your use of Plain English by creating page layouts that enable to eye to navigate through information easily.  Presenting information in this way will make your content accessible to a broader variety of readers.

Searching the internet will uncover tools to assess the readability of your content.

These include

• Flesch-Kincaid readability score and grade level formulas
• SMOG Index
• Hemmingway Editor
• Gunning-Fog Score
• Coleman-Liau Index
• Automated Readability Index

Microsoft Word will check your content using the Flesch-Kincaid method.

Adjust Settings to Include Readability Options

Select File>Options>Proofing
Under the heading ‘When correcting spelling and grammar in Word,’ tick all boxes
Select Grammar and Refinements for Writing Style
Click OK

Using the Readability Checker

Select Review>Editor from the Menu Bar. This will open WORD’s editor (Or F7 Shortcut)

Your “Editor Score” appears along with suggestions (Corrections and Refinements) for improving readability

Click through each Correction or Refinement and accept, adjust, or ignore options depending on the context of your writing
Once you have finished, press F7 again, and your readability statistics will appear on the screen.

Under the readability section of your statistics, the Flesch Reading Ease rating should be between 60-75 for business writing. This may be difficult if your writing must include complex words. A clever way to measure can be to remove the complex words temporarily and re-run the check.

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level helps you to estimate the average age or educational level needed to read your content effectively. Below 8 is readable for most people.

Passive sentences should stay below 10% to keep your tone strong and clear.

Ideas for creating easy-read documents

How to lay out your page
Modern readers tend to scan text rather than reading each word, so make reading more appealing by

• Creating white space on each page to rest the readers eyes
• Logically sequence key information
• Place key information points at the top left, middle, and bottom right of the page, to grab the readers’ attention.
• ‘Standalone’ quotes and phrases 1-4 words long can emphasise key points

Formatting and writing of text
Easy-read documents include

• Short and concise headings, sub-headings, and sentences
• Headings in Sentence Case
• Bulleted lists
• Open or minimal punctuation
• Short paragraphs between 2-4 sentences long
• Sparing use of highlights such as bold and italics. Use only when essential for understanding, and only across 1-3 words

Fonts and headings
Font choice influences the ease in which the eye reads and groups information, so consider using

• Serif Fonts for body text (g., Courier, Times New Roman, or Georgia)
• Sans Serif for headings (Britannic Bold, Arial, Century Gothic)
• 11pt for Body Text
• 12pt for Subheadings
• 14pt for Main Headings

Text communication
Simpler wording with less than three syllables is easier to read.

Non-text communication
Help readers visually locate information quickly by using

• Icons and arrows help the reader to navigate through information
• Colours that evoke emotion and feelings
• Images, graphics, and tables
• Bulleted lists

Aid understanding
To ensure your reader can make use of abbreviations in your content, be sure to

• Write terminology in full and enclosed in brackets in the first instance, and then abbreviate for subsequent mentions
• Include an index, dictionary, or glossary at the end of your writing

Please Note:
Plain English is not appropriate in all situations. Carefully consider it’s use when preparing

• Legal and contractual or academic documentation
• Unique creative pieces
• Writing to a specific group or demographic, or
• Other personal and business communications

Write to find the balance between readability, audience connection, writing type, and depth of communication needed.
Before use, please check that these ideas are right for your work context.