Readability relates to the amount of effort the reader has to make in order to understand what you have written. Readability is affected by the following factors:
- sentence length (sentences longer than 30 words are generally hard to assimilate without having to be read twice)
- lack of structure (within a sentence, paragraph, or section)
- redundancy (i.e., words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and sections that add no value for the reader)
- ambiguity and lack of clarity (i.e., the reader is not sure how to interpret a phrase)
A low level of readability is associated with writers who are more interested in expressing themselves in an ‘elegant’ or ‘academic’ way, rather than on focusing on what the reader really wants/needs to read, and the best way to make this information immediately clear to the reader. English has increasingly become a reader-oriented language, in which writers feel a responsibility to help their readers rather than impress them. This does not mean that English has become a simple language and that it has limited expressive power. It means that, when it is written well, it cuts out any unnecessary information and presents all the useful information in a way that clearly shows the connections between ideas. Ideally, it does not leave gaps for the reader to fill in, nor does it adopt vague language and thus force the reader to make interpretations. Bear in mind, however, that there are still many native English writers whose aim seems to be to obscure rather than enlighten!
Think about what you like reading on the web. You probably appreciate:
- ease in finding the information you want
- short sentences and paragraphs containing only relevant information
- white space, no dense blocks of ****
- no distractors (e.g., pop ups, animations, links in every other sentence)
When you write, bear the above in mind. Think about what you like reading, then try to write in a style that will make reading what you write
a pleasurable experience for your audience. Make it easy for readers to find what they want and to absorb it. Don’t create distractors: so no redundant words and phrases, misspellings, pointless or difficult tables and figures. And don’t make your readers wait for key information or force them to read something twice before they can understand it.
