While dealing with this step we covered vocabulary, dictionary skills (to establish word meaning), context, use of the thesaurus (synonyms), and spelling. We also talked about why a conversational tone and the use of the word "you" would make the brochure more personal and inviting to a potential client.

Point two.      Use short words and sentences.

This item led us into discussions about what constitutes a short word and a short sentence. The group decided that a short word should contain no more than two syllables. They agreed that there were some three syllable words that would not present a problem to a beginning reader, but words with one or two syllables should be used whenever possible. This decision was reached only after the group found out about syllables and how they join together to make words.

Fogg's Readability Scale was introduced to the group. We discussed what it was and why it was useful. The women decided that they did not want to become expert at using the scale because they couldn't see where it would be useful to them. They did say that knowing how the scale works helped them to understand why some material is harder to read.

In order to decide what a short sentence was, we had to look at various kinds of sentence structure. The group looked at the simple, compound, and complex sentence. They decided a short sentence would generally be a simple sentence of not more than ten or twelve words. They did recognize that some sentences could be longer and still be fairly simple to read.

The following two phrases on the first inside panel of the original brochure caused a great deal of difficulty for the group:

YOU ARE NOT ALONE
REACH OUT

Changing them to complete sentences and using upper and lower case letters made them much more readable.

While dealing with this step, the group studied the structure of words and . sentences. Compound words were studied, as well as prefixes and suffixes. Sentence structure included subject and predicate, adjectives and adverbs, phrases and clauses, and punctuation. Declarative and command sentences were also discussed.

Some of the longer sentences that were confusing to some of the women were taken apart and examined for meaning. They were then rewritten using simpler words and simpler sentences. Because the brochure did not contain paragraphs, this step was only looked at briefly. It did give them the opportunity to edit their work. They had to look critically at what they had written and decide if what they wrote said the same thing as the original text. A comparison of words and sentences accomplished this.