What Readability Level Makes Sense For Your Audience? via Wylie Communications

@AnnWylie

What readability level makes sense for your audience?

Even rocket scientists and brain surgeons don’t want it to be harder

Wylie Communications: Dec 2019

Readability level

Who’s in your audience? Whether you’re writing to rocket scientists, brain surgeons or top executives, this research will help you figure out what readability level to target.

When I talk in my writing workshops about the importance of making copy easy to read and understand, there’s always one person who can’t believe the advice applies to her.

“Are you kidding?” she gasps. “I’m writing to executives/pharmacists/school district superintendents/telecomm engineers/financial planners/horse breeders. These folks are superbly educated, brilliant and divine. There’s no way they’ll read anything that easy.”

So you think your audience wants it to be harder? Think again.

1. Start with average.

The average U.S. adult reading level is 8th grade, research shows.

Is your audience average? Yes: Target 7th- or 8th-grade reading level.

Not so average?

2. Then consider going lower.

Some people are less literate than others. These demographics and preferences may affect your audience’s literacy levels, according to the world’s a huge global literacy test, the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies:

Education. Education is the most reliable predictor of literacy, according to OECD. On average, literacy scores increase by 10 points for each year a person remains in school. The lower your readers’ level of education, the easier your copy should be to read.

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Industry. People with poor reading proficiency tend to have more health problems, for instance.  So if you’re writing to health care consumers, consider aiming lower.

How low? The best reading level for health information is 5th grade, say researchers Michael D. Aldridge and Kenneth Brownson.

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6. Consider going lower.

But even if you’re writing to brain surgeons and rocket scientists, keep your grade level average low. That’s because:

➧ People don’t read at their grade level. On average, high school graduates read at the 9th-grade level, according to William H. Dubay, readability consultant at Plain Language Services. College graduates at the 12th-grade level.

➧ Over time, reading skills decline. On average, Dubay says, adults read at five grade levels lower than the last grade they completed.

➧ Everyone benefits from readability. Highly literate people read a message 64% faster, understood it 13% better and enjoyed reading it 30% more when it was easier to read, according to a study by the Nielsen Norman Group.

➧ People don’t want to read at their grade level. That’s why The Wall Street Journal is written at the 11th-grade level. (The front page weighs in at 9th-grade.)

“People prefer to read and get information at a level below their capacity,” says Douglas Mueller, president of the Gunning-Mueller Clear Writing Institute. “Even a Harvard University professor prefers to get information without strain.”

Nobody wants it to be harder. No matter your audience, make your message easier to read.  READ MORE >>