Clear Writing

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When someone gives you an orange, they can say
Have an orange. Or
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I hereby give and convey to you, all and
singular, my estate and interest, right, title,
claim and advantages of and in said orange,
together with all its rind, juice, pulp and pits
and all rights and advantages, therein with full
power to bite, suck, and otherwise eat the same
or give the same away with or without the rind,
skin, juice, pulp and pits, anything herein
before or herein after or in any other means of
whatever nature or kind whatsoever to the
contrary in any wise notwithstanding.
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Emily Carr said it best Get to the point as
directly as you can never use a big word if a
little one will do.
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Cumere
Didja
Tronna
Youse
Murcan
Photi
Fish
hwale, hwy, hwat
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• The International Adult Literacy Survey 2003
• Prose Literacy
• The knowledge and skills needed to understand
  and use information from text including
• ? editorials
• ? news
• ? stories
• ? brochures
• ? instruction manuals

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• Document Literacy
• The knowledge and skills required to locate and
  use information contained in various formats,
  including
• ? job applications
• ? payroll forms
• ? transportation schedules
• ? maps
• ? tables
• ? charts

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• Numeracy
• The knowledge and skills required to apply
  arithmetic operations, either alone or
  sequentially, to numbers embedded in printed
  materials such as
• ? balancing an account
• ? figuring out a tip
• ? completing an order form
• ? determining the amount of interest on a load
  from an ad

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• Problem Solving
• Involves goal-directed thinking and action in
  situations for which no routine solution
  procedure is available.
• The understanding of the problem situation and
  its step-by-step transformation, based on
  planning and reasoning constitute the process of
  problem solving

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The five Literacy Levels Level 1 ? indicates
very low literacy skills where a person may not
be able to identify the correct amount of
medicine to give a child Level 2 ? person can
deal only with material that is simple, clearly
laid out and in which tasks are not too
complex ? person may have adapted their
literacy skills to everyday life but would have
difficulty learning new job skills requiring
higher literacy levels
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Level 3 ? is considered a minimum desirable
threshold in many countries but some jobs
require higher skills Level 4 and 5 ? show
increasingly higher literacy skills
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Canadian Statistics Level 1 and
2 Prose 41.9 Document 42.6 Numeracy 49
.8 Problem Solving 68.5 The Canadian average
in prose and document literacy was level 3. The
average for numeracy and problem solving was just
below level 3.
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• What Makes Materials Hard to Read
• Clear Writing and Literacy, Ontario Literacy
  Coalition
• Overall appearance layout and design
• Organization of material
• Language
• Sentence length and structure
• Tone how you speak to your reader

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Barriers to Understanding ? reduced cognitive
function ? little background knowledge of
topic ? language barriers ? cultural mismatch
between readers and writers beliefs about the
topic ? low overall literacy skills
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Poor Readers ? interpret words and visuals
literally ? are concrete thinkers ? read
slowly, missing meaning ? skip hard words ? may
have difficulty with information processing and
making inferences ? tire quickly - give up
easily
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Health Literacy as defined by Pfizer Is the
ability to read and understand information and
use it effectively
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Health Literacy vs. Overall Literacy ? limited
health literacy is not restricted to adults with
limited overall literacy skills ? most health
education materials are also above the heads of
average readers ? low health literacy can result
from side effects of medication, illness,
anxiety, fear, being in a non medical
environment and many other factors
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• Benefits of Clear Writing
• Frontier College
• reduces word count per sentence
• reduces word length
• simplifies the order of sentences
• restores action to the sentences
• speaks directly to the reader
• simplifies the language

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Clear Writing What is it? How do you do
it Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Affairs 1993 Clear Writing ? is a way of
presenting information so that it is easy for
everyone to read and understand ? considers how
the material looks and what it says ? prevents
misunderstanding between you and your reader by
avoiding jargon and technical words
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Clear Writing makes it easier for ? people who
do not read well ? people whose first language
is not English ? people who do not see well ?
people who are too busy to read a large amount
of text to gain a small amount of
information Clear Writing saves time because it
avoids misunderstanding and errors. It gets the
job done the first time.
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• Why do some people not want to use Clear Writing?
• Literacy is not a problem for our audience
• It will insult people who read well.
• What we have to say cant be written simply.
  We have to use technical language.
• If I write simply, people will not respect my
  expertise.

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• How do you write clearly?
• Ask yourself these questions before you begin to
  write
• Who is my audience?
• What are the needs and abilities of my audience?
• What do I want to tell my reader?

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• Language
• Write directly to your reader.
• not direct
• All staff employees are asked to submit their
  work reports by the end of the year
• direct
• You must have your work reports in by December
  31st.

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not direct All delegates are asked to submit
their expense forms by the end of the
conference. direct You are asked to hand in your
expense forms by Friday 1 pm
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• Language
• Dont change verbs into nouns.
• X Immunization procedures will be performed
  twice a year
• We will immunize children each January
  and June.
• X The basic modifications in this program will
  focus on developing a positive attitude.
• We will modify this program to focus on
  developing a positive attitude.

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• Language
• Use the active voice.
• The subject does the action.
• X The coffee pot must be washed
• You must wash the coffee pot.
• X This would involve four volunteers to help out
  twice a month from about 6 pm 830 pm.
• We need four volunteers to help the first and
  third Monday each month, from 6 pm 830 pm.
  Please volunteer.

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• Language
• 4. Use a positive tone.
• X Anyone not wearing a bathing cap will not be
  allowed in the pool.
• You must wear a bathing cap while in the pool
• X If you havent glanced over our programs, you
  may want to be aware of some new changes and
  additions.
• Read our programs and see the changes and
  additions weve made.

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• Language
• Avoid Using Jargon or acronyms
• X The new OMAFRA office has a boardroom which
  rural stakeholders can use.
• The new Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and
  Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) office has a boardroom
  which rural groups can use.
• Rule When using acronyms, be sure to use the
  full form once
• on each page, followed by the short
  form (as seen above).
• Once you turn to a new page, you must
  again use the full
• form the first time it is used.

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• Language
• Explain difficult words in their context
• X Every season, your sprayer should be
  calibrated.
• Every season you should calibrate your sprayer by
  measuring the output of each nozzle to make sure
  that each one is putting out the same amount of
  spray.

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• Language
• Write directly to your reader.
• Dont change verbs into nouns.
• Use the active voice. The subject does the
  action.
• Use a positive tone.
• Avoid using jargon and acronyms.
• Explain difficult words in their context.

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• Organization
• Write instructions in the order that you want
  them carried out.
• X Go to bed after youve brushed your teeth.
• Brush your teeth, then go to bed.
• X When returning from sick leave, see your
  supervisor, after youve been to the health and
  safety centre for approval to return to work.
• If youve been away from work and have taken sick
  leave, you are to report to the health and safety
  centre to get approval to return to work. Once
  you have approval, see your supervisor.

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• Organization
• 2. Write complete sentences only when it makes
  sense to do so.
• X The Annual Fall Clean-up Day will be held on
  Saturday
• October the 20th from 930 am to 330 pm
  at the Township
• Dump. Dumping charges will be 10 per
  vehicle.
• Township Dump
• Annual Fall Clean-up Day
• Date Saturday October 20, 20XX
• Time 900 am to 330 pm
• Where Township Dump
• Cost 10 per vehicle

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• Organization
• List critical points apart from the text.
• A one day course ideal for board members and
• directors of an organization.
• You will learn about
• ? liability of directors
• ? roles and responsibilities of directors
• ? incorporated vs. unincorporated organizations
• ? budgeting and controlling expenditures
• ? survival tips for directors

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• Organization
• List items in the same grammatical form.
• X reviews the submissions
• X if necessary, rewrites without change intent
• X if necessary, returns to the association
• X Circulates all resolutions to members
• reviews the submissions
• rewrites content, if necessary, without changing
  intent
• returns the submission, if necessary, to the
  association
• circulates all resolutions to members

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• Organization
• Use headings that summarize the text.
• X Attention!
• Information on New Government Grants
• X Expenses
• Your Expenses will be Paid, Read Carefully

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• Organization
• 6. Write sentences that are not long and
  complicated.
• X A viable agricultural base strengthens the
  rural community
• and likewise, agriculture benefits from
  close ties to the
• community, business, education, social and
  recreation
• facilities.
• A strong agricultural base strengthens the rural
  community.
• Agriculture benefits from close ties to
  community, business,
• education, social and recreation facilities.

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All non-4H organizations who wish to use the 4-H
name, logo, trademarks etc. in association with
any event which is not a Provincial 4-H program
(and is considered an Ontario 4-H event under the
guidelines of the position statement) are
required to enter into a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Ontario 4-H Council and
must sign the Letter of Agreement verifying that
the proposed event complies with the stated
guidelines (University level) Tip If you
increased the number of sentences and
decreased the number of multi-syllable words,
you would immediately lower the reading
level.
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• Organization
• 1. Write instructions in the order that you want
  them carried out.
• Write complete sentences only when it makes sense
  to do so.
• List critical points apart from the text.
• List items in the same grammatical form.
• Use headings that summarize the text.
• Write sentences that are not long and
  complicated.

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Clear Writing Exercise X There are so many social
problems such as wife abuse, child abuse, more
frequent use of fire arms among teens and on to
such needs as food banks.

• ? There are many social problems such as
• ? child and wife abuse
• ? use of firearms among teens
• ? increased need for food banks

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Clear Writing Exercise X Those engaged in the
business of farming are discouraging future
generations from farming because of the lack
of being able to provide a viable income.
? Farmers dont want their children farming
because they cant earn a good living.
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Clear Writing Exercise X We are sorry to advise
you that new program changes will not be
completed until Wednesday.
? Your new programs will be ready Wednesday.
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Clear Writing Exercises X The lack of landfill
sites and the continual need to recycle is
an issue everyone must deal with.
? We must recycle.
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Clear Writing Exercise X A new addition to our
Gymnastics programs, a Display Team will be
added for those children who would like to work
on routines and have the talent and desire to
perform.

• ? Are you under 13 years of age?
• Do you like gymnastics?
• Do you like to work on routines?
• Do you like to perform in front of people?
• Then join our new gymnastics program A Display
  Team

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A Few Things To Keep in Mind ? people take
ownership of what they write be careful when
speaking to them about their writing style ? inten
t and context of writing can be easily lost when
you are re-writing into clear language be sure
to work in teams to help ensure the meaning is
not lost in the re-write ? re-write, re-write,
re-write it will take at least 3 times at
looking over and re-writing materials before you
can be comfortable with the results
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Further Tips for Clear Writing ? put important
information at the beginning or near the top ?
put your name and identifying information at
the top of a flyer so it is easily seen ? use 1
inch margins whenever possible ? use 1.5 line
spacing ? have 40-60 characters per inch ? use
at least 12 point font ? remove unnecessary
information keep only what you need to keep to
get your message across
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Further Tips for Clear Writing ? use serif type
for text ? use san serif type only for short
headings or signs ? use upper and lower case
letters to give shape to words do not use
block caps ? use bold type to highlight
something Italics print is the most difficult
to read ? left side justify, right side
unjustified text ? only centre items if they fit
onto one line, if it takes more than one line,
left side justify, right side unjustified
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Further Tips for Clear Writing ? use graphics
that relate to the text directly ? use boxes and
bullets sparingly and consistently ? avoid semi
colons when using bullets ? use good contrast
between paper colour and ink ? use soft coloured
paper best colour is soft yellow ? avoid
fluorescent paper ? avoid blue ink on blue
paper, red or orange ink ? avoid high gloss
paper ? use faint watermarks, but better yet put
pictures to the side rather than behind the print
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Further Tips for Clear Writing ? use lots of
white space dense print makes the reader think
the information is boring, difficult or will
take too long to read ? be consistent with the
features you choose for headings ? complete
your document before you begin to add features
and formatting ? bolding is better than
underlining and it is never good to do both ?
Sentence length should be no more than 15-18
words,
lower grade levels 12-15 words
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Clear Writing Check List This check list is for
use after youve written your material. Your
Reader Why did I write this article? Did I
consider my readers needs? Did I write directly
to the reader?
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Clear Writing Check List Your Purpose What did I
want to say? Have I included the important
information? Is there information that can be
left out?
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Clear Writing Check List Your organization Are
my main ideas in a logical order? Have I put the
important information first? Have I used graphics
or illustrations?
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Clear Writing Check List Your Tone Did I read
the article aloud? Do I sound helpful,
friendly? Does my text sound like informal
conversation?
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Clear Writing Check List Your Style Have I
limited the length of my paragraphs? Are my
sentences short and clear? Have I used familiar
words and concrete examples? Have I avoided
jargon and explained technical language?
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Clear Writing Check List Your Design Is the
material attractive to look at? Is it easy to
read, with lots of white space and breaks in the
text? Could some of the text be presented in
bullet point form or lists? Did I use boldface
type or boxes? What font did I use?
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Clear Writing Check List Your Design
continued Is the paper light and easy to read? Is
the print dark and clear? Is the design clear or
cluttered?
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Before You Seek Feedback When writing information
for the general public ? always work in teams ?
read your work aloud to check for tone ? use
the Clear Writing Check List as a guide ? check
the readability level using computer programs
which determine grade levels, or for English
using Gunning Fog or the Fry Readability Index ?
rewrite, rewrite, rewrite
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Evaluating Your Written Materials It is important
for you to develop your ability to analyze
material. Feedback to your materials should be
sought from ? your audience ? your colleagues
not involved in the writing of your materials ?
your colleagues who were involved in the writing
process
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• Once you feel ready to test your materials.
• Determine the amount of feedback you want.
• 2. Determine how you want to get that feedback
• ? focus group
• ? one on one discussions
• ? phone conversations
• ? survey (not the best process)

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• Focus groups should be small, intimate and
  friendly.
• ? thank your participants
• ? pay honorariums (if possible) to cover their
  time or travel costs
• ? follow-up with your focus group participants
  and share with them the results of their input
  (tell them the changes made to the documents
  based on their input)

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• Develop questions which are direct and which
  will give you specific information.
• If using a rating system, use an even number.
• Once you have your feedback gathered from your
  audience, your colleagues and your writing team
• ? edit your work
• ? share the edits with your team
• ? set it aside for a few days
• ? re-check your materials
• ? edit your work again
• ? complete the printing process and distribute

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What is a Good Reading Level? Reading level
depends on your audience ? specialized
information for informed audience 9 to
college level ? general public - grades 5 to 7
(Canadian levels) ? general public with people
whose first language is not English grades 4-5
(Canadian levels) Points to remember when
writing ? pamphlets or booklets - write at a
consistent level ? newsletters or newspapers
include at least one article per page that is
easier to read
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Words to Avoid and Words you Can Use Avoid Use
accompany
go with
accomplish
do
advise
tell
with reference to
about
afford an opportunity
let, allow
here is
attached herewith is
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Words to Avoid and Words you Can Use Avoid Use
at the present time
now
commence
start, begin
agree
concur
with respect to
about
consequently
so
didnt
failed to
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Words to Avoid and Words you Can Use Avoid Use
utilize
use
approximately
about
help
assist
conclude
end, finish
co-operate
help, work together
show
demonstrate
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Words to Avoid and Words you Can Use Avoid Use
endeavour
try
exhibit
show
help, begin
facilitate
forward
send
has the capability
can, is able
end, fire
terminate
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Fry Readability Test ? one of the easiest
standardized tests that can be used for
English ? can be used for as little as 100
words ? can be applied to longer texts by taking
three or more samples and averaging the
results Note Fry uses a graph that was developed
prior to the Canadian grade equivalency change.
Most computer programs are also at an equivalency
level prior to the Canadian changelower the
grade level by 1, so if Fry says it is grade 6,
it is grade 5 in Canada
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• How to Use the Fry Readability Test
• Start at the beginning of a sentence and count
  out 100 words.
• A word is any group of symbols with a space on
  either side, ie. Joe, UIC, 1945, , etc.
• Count the number of sentences in the 100 word
  passage.
• If the passage ends in the middle of the
  sentence, estimate the length of the last
  sentence to the nearest tenth, ie. 2.3, 4.5.

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• Count the number of syllables in the 100 word
  passage.
• The number of syllables corresponds to the
  number of beats you hear when you say the word
  aloud.
• Generally there are as many syllables as there
  are vowel sounds.
• For numbers and short forms, count one syllable
  for each symbol, 1945 four syllables, one
  syllable

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• On the graph, find the number of sentences (side)
  and the number of syllables (top) and mark
  the spot where the two lines intersect.
• Repeat on at least three samples in a long
  document and take the average of the assessments
  as the average reading level. Shorter documents
  take one or two samples.
• 6. If the lines meet in the grey area, the
  measurement is not accurate. Tray again with
  another passage.

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Fry Graph for estimating readability
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• Gunning Fog Readability Test
• Count at least 100 words. Stop at the nearest
  sentence end.
• Count the number of sentences.
• 3. Find the average sentence length by dividing
  the number of words by the number of
  sentences.

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• Count each hard word once
• ? hard words have 3 or more syllables
• ? compound words are hard words if they
  have 4 syllables or more
• ? do not count proper names, acronyms,
  numerals
• 5. Add the number of hard words to the average
  sentence length.
• Multiply the result by the constant of (.4).
• Round off the resulting grade level to one
  percentage point.
• Average the scores from several samples.

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• Gunning Fog Example
• 1. 111 words
• 2. 5 sentences
• 3. The average sentence length would be 111
  divided by 5 22.2
• 4. There are 16 hard words
• 5. 16 22.2 38.2
• 6. 38.2 x .4 15.28
• 15.3 1 grade level for Canadian standards
• 14.3 college level material

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What Fry and Gunning Fog Wont Tell You ? how
the material is written ? how complex the ideas
are ? if the content is in a logical order ?
if the material makes sense ? if the vocabulary
is appropriate ? if the grammar is correct ?
if there is gender bias ? if the design is
attractive and helps or hinders the reader ? if
it is in a form or type that is easy to read
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Computer Readability Programs Word and
WordPerfect allow you to ? check grammar ? check
spelling ? identify grammatical errors, complex
sentences and passive construction You will
need to ? learn how your computer program works ?
still be a critical editor of your own writing
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Web Pages and Other References www.med.utah.edu/pa
ted/authors/clear_writing.html http//clearedits.c
om http//plainlanguagenetwork.org www.plainlegalw
riting.blogspot.com Ontario Literacy
Coalition www.on.literacy.ca Frontier College
www.frontiercollege.ca ABC Canada abc-canada.org/
media_room/ facts/clear_language.shtml
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Clear Writing Consultant Leah Morris leah.morris_at_s
ympatico.ca Adult Basic Education
Association director_at_abea.on.ca 905-527-2222 www.a
bea.on.ca