Making it clear

Clear language involves thinking, planning, writing, designing, testing and revising. With every writing project, you should consider the following checklist of questions.

Your Reader

• who do you want to read your materials?
• why do you want them to read it?
• what do you want your reader to do?

Document Organization

• how will readers find the information they want?
• how will readers know what information is important?

Content

• will readers be able to see how this material relates to them?

Words to Use and Words to Avoid

• do you use concrete, active, positive words?
• do you avoid jargon, abbreviations, idioms and nouns made from verbs?

Sentence Length and Structure

• do you use simple, concise sentences?
• do you vary the sentence length, with only one new item of information per sentence?

Tone

• are you talking with the readers or at them?
• do you sound bossy or helpful, distant or warm?

Design

• will your material attract the readers' attention?
• is your main body of text in a serif typeface?
• is the type size appropriate for your audience?
• is the length of the line comfortable to read?
• is there space on each page to break up the text? D do you use a ragged right margin?
• do you highlight important information?
• do you use illustrations to help your readers understand, remember and become interested?
• is the paper and ink colour combination easy to read?

Reread, Test and Revise

• did you check for words and information that can be left out?
• did you change any complex sentences?
• did you test your draft material with people who represent your audience?
• did you do several drafts?