by Nicole Watkins Campbell
​
Editing for Plainer Legal Writing Instructor

The best way to ensure your document meets readers’ needs is to test it with the audience. Even testing that is quick and cheap can give you useful information about how to improve your document.
 
What is a test?
A test can be as simple as asking a colleague or a citizen to answer one question about your text or as complicated as inviting 30 people to read your document and answer questions. Almost any test will help you make the writing better. And any test with a member of your audience will get you closer to writing that works for your readers.
 
When should you test?
Start testing as soon as you have enough material to test. Don’t wait until your document is complete unless it’s a short email.
 
Make corrections based on feedback, and test again, if you can. The best practice is to test a couple of times, and more if the text is important and could be difficult for your readers.
 
How should you test?

Several methods will help you improve your document.

• Paraphrase testing: In individual interviews, your testers read a short document and explain the concepts in their own words.
• Controlled comparison testing. You create and send out more than one version of your document, either simultaneously or over several mailouts, then compare the responses. You’ll get the clearest direction from your results if the versions differ in only one way, for example, a different opening sentence, or different paragraph structures, or using a numbered list to highlight a step-by-step process.
• Usability testing: In individual interviews, your testers read a more complex text while you watch, ask questions, and note whether they answered correctly and readily or struggled.

 
Record your results in some way:

• write down what you recall after a conversation about a document
• note which version of a letter generated the most or least phone calls or errors
• have someone take notes on the test subject’s answers or audio- or video-record the conversation

 
Who should you recruit?

• people in your target audience (your best opportunity)
• people familiar with your audience
• people who have nothing to do with your document
• people outside your organization
• people outside your skill set

 
Testing documents internally with co-workers while you’re still writing is highly useful. You can then test a final draft with someone from outside your team. Your co-workers will likely read about as well as you do and have the same technical understanding, so you will want other perspectives on the complexity of the language and the topic.
 
Don’t test with people who know the information in the document or people who helped you get to this point in creating this document. They will know too much about your subject area to notice what’s missing or out of place.
 
Readability measures

Your word processor or a website like Hemingway Editor will offer quick readability tests. But these long-established ways of describing how readable a text is actually don’t mean much. They were originally created to measure children’s reading skills, not documents for adults.
 
The software counts syllables (to represent complexity in language), words and paragraphs (to represent complexity in expression) to roughly estimate reading difficulty. The resulting number claims to reflect the number of years of education a person needs to read the text.
 
Readability measures fail in three main ways:

• It’s easy (and tempting) to game them, even unintentionally.
• They cannot distinguish between a meaningless text and a useful one.
• They cannot tell you if the structure and organization are useful or if information is missing.

 
If your text readability score from Microsoft Word or Hemingway Editor is gets a Grade 10 or higher, you probably need to edit for clarity: many people don’t read at this level. If you test again, you will be able to see if your changes made your sentences easier to read, but you should rely on other methods to make sure your text is clear.
 
Try setting up a simple test of a bit of writing this week. You will learn something surprising or pleasing. But you will learn something.

Nicole Watkins Campbell

Plain language knows no boundaries: so we are expanding ours to offer plain language courses in French, Spanish, and in South Africa. We want plain language to be everywhere because we know it is for everyone.

'New' is a key word for today's personal and work lives. The Plain Language Academies' team is creating more ways to share our skills and meet your growing needs for clear communication. Take advantage of current Core and Advanced courses at last year's fees. We encourage you to explore Advanced courses that tackle specific topics like clear health, legal, science, strategic planning, and online communication. New courses are coming. keep visiting us PlainLanguageAcademy.com for details and sign up for our newsletter.

We are looking forward to meeting you online, sharing skills, and learning about your interests.

Courses to take you forward
Our courses are designed to keep your clear communication skill development focused on the future. New fees are planned for future courses. Here are brief profiles of a few courses you can consider.
Clear Design Practices with Flora Gordon, (you can still sign up), explores the important role design plays in our communications and ways you can make design enhance your messages.
Plain Language 2.0 and Health Literacy, never been more important. Romina Marazzato Sparano shares her expertise. Available in English (now) and Spanish (soon). 
Everyone is online and we need to be clear and meet their needs. Kate Harrison Whiteside brings her years of plain language use online experience to you in Creating Clear E-content.
New: Implementing Plain Language as a Strategic Priority with Sarah Slabbert and Nadja Green, Plain Language Institute, South Africa. The focus of plain language is often on specific documents or pieces of communication. Implementing plain language in a systematic manner in an organization is a different challenge for executives, compliance officers, communication managers, or customer relations. This course will empower you to make your organization truly customer- or citizen-centred.

See Courses for current course registration links

by Nicole Watkins Campbell, www.watkinscampbell.com

In the 2020s, more and more new information will be created and published online and in print.

We will see:

• new ideas 
• new ways of understanding the world, and 
• new language to describe it all—legal, technical, and business jargon.

People who want to keep up will need to read and learn even more. They will want information to act on, decide on, or just hold, and they will want to be able to get it quickly and easily, because they have many other things to do.

Making your information stand out

This information exists in many places online and in printed documents, some well-written and others less so.

Good writing serves readers well if it:

• gives them what they need, not more
• flows logically 
• uses language they use, and
• explains the few new terms.

The writer's role in clear communication

What do you, the writer or editor, know about what your readers need? Where are they when they read your document? Do they need to read twice to understand it and take action?

As a writer or editor of legal information, you can help your readers by learning more about them and then making your writing as clear as possible.

Learn about legal editing for clarity

My Academy course, Editing for Plainer Legal Writing, will help you make your writing more useful and more interesting. And, that will actually make you more trustworthy and likeable. This study of complex language explains how.

This course will guide you on how to edit information about the law—about people’s rights and responsibilities—to meet your clients' needs. You will learn to make these types of documents or content clearer for your readers, even if you are not a lawyer. In fact, the course is aimed at non-legal communicators who are tasked with presenting legal information.

Join me February 10, 2020 for Editing for Plainer Legal Writing. Reserve your place now.

You will sharpen your skills and win client appreciation.