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Plain Language

Plain language helps make your content accessible by allowing your audience to quickly understand it the first time they interact with it. This helps people with different cognitive abilities, people whose first language isn't English, and those that rely on audio to listen to text.

Plain language means that your content is written as clear and simple as possible. Good plain language will help readers find what they need, understand it quickly, and use that information to meet their needs.

Basic guidelines for plain language Anchor link

  1. Use short sentences.
    • Try to write one idea per sentence.
    • Avoid repeating words.
  2. Use simple words.
    • Try to keep the writing below an 8th grade reading level.
    • Choose words your readers use.
    • Imagine you're talking to your reader over the phone. What words would you use to answer questions directly?
  3. Use an active voice.
    • The subject of a sentence should be performing an action.
    • For example, "You need to submit the form online." You, as the subject of the sentence, are performing the action by submitting the form.
  4. Write for your audience.
    • People visit your website to do something. Before writing, identify the reader's needs.
    • How can you answer your reader's top questions quickly?
    • What do readers need to know or do after reading your content?
  5. Make it scannable.
    • Users don't read, they scan. They often leave web pages within 10 to 20 seconds.
    • Structure your content with clear headers and present them in a logical order.
    • Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and lists to sort content into smaller sections that are easier to read.
  6. Don't use jargon.
    • Business and technical jargon can be confusing. Try to use common words in place of jargon.
    • Spell out acronyms the first time one is used.
  7. Don't use idioms.
    • Idioms are only clear to people that are in a certain group.
    • These can be confusing for someone whose first language isn't English.
    • Try to use simple words in place of phrases.

Test your content Anchor link

Now that you've written your content, it's important to test it! This can help you improve your content. You can test your content using readability tools, listening to your content read aloud, and conducting user testing with your audience.

Use a readability tool Anchor link

Always run your content through a readability tool and try to get the reading grade level lower than 8th grade. Some common readability tools are:

  • Hemingway App: This app highlights content that could be hard for your audience to read.
  • Readable: This is a paid service that analyzes your content to identify its readability score, grammar errors, and style issues.
  • Microsoft's Flesch-Kincaid: This can be used with Microsoft Word to calculate your content's readability score.

Use a text-to-speech reader Anchor link

Text-to-speech (TTS) is a type of assistive technology that takes words on a digital device and reads it aloud. Simply hearing text read aloud can help authors better understand where improvements can be made. We recommend this tool:

User testing with your audience Anchor link

Automated readability tools won't catch everything. You'll need to test your content with humans too. When user testing, you can:

  • Use tree testing to discover if menu labels and other content is easy to find. This is a research method where you ask users to look for important resources.
  • Ask your users to read your content aloud. This can help you identify what words they may struggle with. Users can also rate the clarity of the language.
  • Ask your users to paraphrase what they read to gauge their understanding.

Resources Anchor link

Next steps Anchor link

When you are ready to learn more, here are some further guides and resources that may help your content: