It’s National Literacy Week, so I thought we’d talk about writing. Specifically, how to write content that is readable.
Why? Because if your content is easy to read and follow, there’s a higher chance your audience will actually read it. And that’s definitely what you want.
So here are my top tips for creating content that’s user friendly.
1. Know your target audience
This is perhaps the most important of today’s tips. That’s because what you write, and how you write it, depends entirely upon who you are writing for.
If you are writing for teenagers, that would require a different writing style than if you were writing for professors. Similarly, writing for beginners would be different than writing for experts.
The bottom line is this:
If you want to resonate with your audience, you need to first know who they are.
What do you need to know?
Here are samples of the types of things you might want to know about your target audience.
- How old are they?
- What do they do for a living?
- What’s their level of education?
- Where do they live?
- What gender are they?
- Are they experts or beginners? (in the field your business is in)
- Are their personalities formal or more relaxed?
If you have been in business for several years and have met each of your clients face-to-face, chances are you can already answer at least some of these questions.
But what if you’ve just started your business? To write effective content, you need to find out some basic information about your potential customers. You could make some assumptions. For example, if your company is a knitting store, you can probably safely assume that most of your customers will be female, since knitting is more of a women’s hobby (but not exclusively!) You might also assume that they will be older, say in the 40-70 range. But that second assumption could be wrong.
So you would need to do some research. You could take a mental note of customers’ approximate age as they enter your store. You could also engage them in conversation and find out a bit more about them.
Another option is to run a survey. With a survey, you can get the answers to several questions at once, and greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to figure out who your audience is. And you can do them whether you have a storefront or operate solely online.
Regardless of which method you use, the information you uncover will help you plan the content you will write and the way you will write it. For example, if it turns out most of the people that come into your store are new knitters, then you might want to write posts in easy to follow language that help them learn more about the craft. On the other hand, if you find out that most of your customers are seasoned knitters, then you might write more advanced content.
2. Avoid big words
I once asked a business owner who liked to write complex Facebook posts why he used so many big words. He told me: “I want to show them I’m intelligent”.
“Wrong”, I said. “You want to show them you’re HELPFUL.”
And using big words is usually NOT helpful. It confuses people and makes it harder to digest your writing.
For most businesses, you want to write more like the way you speak in daily conversation, not the way you would in an essay. Here’s an example of what I mean.
Don’t
It is with great appreciation that we recognize, today, the outstanding contributions of one of our long-time employees. We wish her well in her new endeavours as she embarks upon the next phase of her life: retirement. We wish you well, Marie Thompson.
Do
Marie is retiring! Thanks Marie for all your hard work over the past 20 years. We will miss you!
The second version is easier to read and friendlier, all because you avoided big words.
3. Chunk information
Our brains can only process one small thought at a time. Once that’s processed, we can then process the next thought. What that means is long, winding, complicated sentences make our brains work harder. And that can confuses us.
To make your writing “easy on the brain”, use “chunking”.
Chunking means presenting information one small bit (chunk) at a time. In writing, we do this by shortening sentences, adding brackets, adding punctuation, breaking text into bullet points, using simpler phrases, using colour, etc.
Here’s an example.
Not chunked
Insert the screw into slot B and tighten it until you just notice a slight resistance at which point you want to insert a second screw into slot C.
Chunked
- Insert the screw into slot B.
- Turn until you just notice a slight resistance.
- Stop.
- Insert a new screw into slot C
- Turn until you just notice a slight resistance.
Here’s another example:
Not chunked
It’s important to make sure you follow all of Facebook’s image requirements such as size, compression, and resolution, in order to ensure that your images aren’t resized and don’t appear in a way you don’t want them to.
Chunked
Make sure you follow all of Facebook’s image requirements (such as size, compression, resolution). If you don’t, your images might be altered by Facebook. That means they may not appear the way you want them to.
4. Logical flow
One of the biggest problems I see in writing is jumping back and forth between ideas. It’s extremely common, and it makes it hard for the reader to follow your ideas.
You want to make sure you present everything in a logical order. The best way to make sure you do this is to create a plan.
Creating a Plan
Don’t just start writing. Take the time first to list all of the points you want to cover in the article. Then group these points into logical groups. Within each group, order the points in a way that would make sense for the reader. Try to think of the order you would present the information if you were teaching it.
Make sure you really think about all the content you want to cover in the article. Don’t start writing until you have this list completed and properly ordered.
The list provides a framework for your writing. It tells you when in the article to talk about each point. Here’s part of the outline I did for this article (I’m showing the outline for the section you are currently reading).
Logical Flow
- Problem: People jump back and forth
- Solution: Create a plan
- Talking points re plan:
- Write down all points to be discussed in article
- Place points in sections
- In each section, put points in logical order
- Show a sample plan
- Talking points re plan:
Once I had the list done, I used each of these six points as a temporary subheading. I then wrote the relevant content under each one. When I was finished, I erased the temporary subheadings.
By making a plan up front, you ensure every topic is covered in its appropriate section. You minimize the chance you will repeat content, because you’ve already planned for what is in each section, and what is not (because it’s covered in a different section).
5. Keep it Short
I don’t mean the article itself should be short—I mean keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Here’s why.
The longer a sentence is, the harder the brain has to work to process it. And you don’t’ want your readers feeling like reading your content is too tiring on their brain. Readers want content that is easy to absorb. If they have to work at understanding your message, they might stop reading.
Here’s an example. I’m going to rewrite the previous paragrah, but as one long sentence.
The longer a sentence is, the harder the brain has to work to process it, and you don’t want your readers feeling like reading your content is too tiring on their brain because readers want content that is easy to absorb because if they have to work at understanding your message, they might stop reading.
Try to stick to one small idea per sentence. This is ESPECIALLY true if you are providing instructions.
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So there are my 5 tips for making your content more readable. It’s really a win-win: your customers get more out of your writing, and you have happier readers—and that’s great for your brand.
