Use plain language to meet your reader’s needs

As promised last week, here are some of the most effective strategies I’ve found for simple, plain, understandable communication.

• Avoid sesquipedalian vocabulary, aka big words. Writers often flatter ourselves that bigger words imply a smarter source. But in fact, bigger words only mean that fewer people will understand you — whether because of literacy problems, hearing problems, vision problems, or something else.

• Related to big words are jargon words. Some classic examples arise over and over in legal writing, making readers (i.e. judges) cringe:

• Hereinafter

• Same/Said

• The parties mutually covenant and agree… (why not just say they agree?) 

• Run-on sentences strain your reader’s visual acuity and attention span. Sentences taking up too many lines can interrupt your reader’s train of thought while he parses them, or they may simply put him to sleep.

• Incorrect or excessive punctuation, being so common, and, also, so confusing (too many…), is a murderer of communication. It’s a red flag that tells you the thing you’re trying to do with your sentence isn’t working, and if you don’t heed the warning you’ll distract your reader from your critical message. Don’t predicate your meaning on the assumption that your reader knows a semicolon’s one, true function.

• Foreign words often find their way into the Zeitgeist (über, anyone?), and many become standard English.

• Eric and his fiancée RSVPed "yes" for the soirée.     

Excessive use of unfamiliar foreign words can be confusing because, well, they’re foreign. Like many obstacles to plain language, these words draw attention not to how smart you, the writer, are, but how smart you think you are. Don’t let your reader’s takeaway be your own self-congratulation.

How else can you be more readable?

• Typography is the unsung hero of clear communication (and here is a fantastic resource to help with it). You may have written a masterpiece, but your eloquence is useless if it’s literally unreadable. Below are some of the elements of typography that really make a difference:

• Words per line: In non-justified text, the ideal words per line is 9-12.

• Leading: This is the space between lines. If the leading is too small, it creates a strain on the eyes.

• Size: Text that is too small is often a deal-breaker for potential readers.

• Font: The first rule of fonts is to use the same font for your entire document. The second rule is that Times New Roman no longer reigns supreme. Depending whether your writing will be read on paper (where serifed fonts are easier) or a screen (where non-serifed is better), plain language advocates like Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Garamond, and Georgia.

• For readers on the web, convenience plays a huge part in attracting or persuading an audience. Excessive hyperlinking to background information and sources puts up significant obstacles to people reading your content on a mobile device, where a person may have 237 open tabs and no idea how to get back to yours. Try explaining the concept instead of linking to it.

We’ve really only scratched the surface of the plain language movement here. In upcoming posts I’ll examine some of the trickier issues that crop up once you’ve taken the plunge into clear communication, such as the difference between a term of art and a jargon word.