Readability guidelines

‘Readability’ is how easily a user can understand your text. Ease of reading means faster decisions and actions for users. It is key to our ability to communicate with our audience.

• 44% of Australians have a very low level of literacy (ABS data).
• 21% of Australians speak a language other than English at home (ABS data).

We need to write with this in mind. When we do, we make it easier for all our users to complete their task on our website.

Grade level

All our web content should be maximum Grade 5–9 readability level.

This means upper primary to lower secondary. For some this may still be too high.

Aim for a Grade 3–4 level for general content like:

• opening sentences where you define the purpose of the page
• calls-to-action
• headings and page titles
• link descriptions.

A Grade 3–4 level is low but achievable. The opening section of this guidance is Grade 4 in Hemingway. The whole page is Grade 5.

By aiming for this, you make it easy for users to summarise and understand what a page is about.

Tools

Tools are available to help you improve readability. Some are online and others are embedded in programs like Microsoft Word.

Each tool has its own scoring system. To achieve a consistent approach, we use one tool.

Hemingway Editor

This online tool will analyse your writing and identify the grade level. It will also identify each use of:

• adverbs
• passive voice
• phrases with simple alternatives
• sentences that are hard to read
• sentences that are very hard to read.

Use these insights to improve the readability of your text.

Considerations

Use any tool with caution.

Tools don't replace a clear understanding of the audience and purpose of your writing.

Readability is only one aspect of writing simple, useful web content.

Active or passive voice

Tools like Hemingway will identify use of passive voice as a problem. We write in active voice, but not in every sentence. If every sentence is active, your writing may sound stilted and too assertive.

Conversational tone

Our web content style is conversational. We talk directly to the user. This might mean a longer sentence, or a different keyword, or a passive voice. Write how you would explain it to a friend — politely.

Plain language

Writing in plain language is often confused with ‘dumbing it down’. It’s not.

Users are time poor. They want to come to our website, act and leave. They scan content, they don’t take time to read.

Use plain language to make your content clear, direct and lively. It will engage your users and help them quickly scan and take action.

Keywords

Frontload headings and sentences with meaningful keywords. Use keywords to draw users to your page from Google.

Hemingway may suggest an alternative that is less meaningful to the user. You will need to decide which option will help the user more.

You may also need to choose passive voice to frontload a sentence with a keyword.

Use of personal pronouns

On our websites, we use ‘you’, ‘us’ and ‘we’, not ‘the department’.

This establishes a connection with the user and helps keep content clean and short.

Purpose

Clearly define the purpose of your page. Use this to write and then to assess your content.

Think about:

• Comprehension — Does it make sense?
• Effectiveness — Does it tell the user what they need to know?
• Structure — Am I telling them in a logical order? Does this step them through the task?

If you’re not sure, ask someone (a colleague) to test it. And remember, if you're an expert on the topic, you aren't the right person to check it.

Tips for writing readable content

You can see from this page that you don’t have to avoid long words or complicated ideas. The way you format your content can make it easier to read.

Here are some tips to achieve a low readability grade.

• Break up long sentences – the general rule is one idea per sentence.
• Use simple language in headings – set the context for more detailed or hard to read sections.
• Get your headings and text to work together – if you need to include complex words, don’t repeat them in the sentences below.
• Create simple context – support understanding of long or complex ideas by writing as much plain language around it as you can.
• Choose simpler alternatives – ‘hard to read’ is grade 0, ‘complex’ is grade 12, ‘complicated’ is post-graduate.
• Don’t make blocks of hard to read words – ‘program assessment guide download’ is grade 16, ‘see the program assessment guide’ is grade 7.
• Avoid ‘ing’ words – ‘assess’ is grade 7, ‘assessing’ is post-graduate. Tweak your sentences to achieve this and you may also find you use more active voice.

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