How to Make the Text More Readable?
Composing a text with a high level of readability won’t happen with a finger snap. Regardless of what you are writing (an essay, an article, a blog post, or something else), your piece of content will become recognizable only when it becomes highly readable. This problem gets extremely important when you write about complicated topics or have to explain something in simple words. When such an issue appears, people have two options. The first is to hire a professional writer from a service like grademiners.com. The second option is to work on your text and implement techniques to boost readability. Don’t hide under the couch if you feel scared after reading these lines. After reading our article, you’ll realize the methods described are simple to implement and will feel even simpler.
What Do We Mean by Readability?
A readable text is easy to understand. You don’t search for clarification when you deal with highly readable text. Reading such content won’t take much time, and you will quickly spot key takeaways, so there will be no problems understanding what the author is trying to say.
Texts with high readability are relevant for busy people. They want to finish reading ASAP without searching for definitions, terms, and clarifications. Moreover, some people don’t want to read one sentence twice as they want to keep moving. So, how do we achieve high readability?
Use Simple Constructions and Consider Measure
Simplicity is key, especially in content writing. Whether you want to share a problem, conduct research, or write a review, your text should be simple and understandable. The best way to achieve it is to write as simple as possible. Imagine that you are explaining the topic to a person who is not familiar with it. Explain all the nuances that matter, avoid unfamiliar synonyms, and don’t repeat too much.
Regarding the measure, we mean using no less than 80 characters per line, including spaces. Since words are short and simple, people don’t have to stop and think of what they just read.
Write Your Text Using Variable Structure
Paragraph after paragraph, after paragraph, and so on. Such a structure is pretty simple, but who would find this text readable? You may easily lose focus or didn’t find key takeaways at all. The best solution is to change the structure by implementing various elements.
- Use bulleted lists to mention key takeaways.
- Bold the first sentence of each point in the list.
- Bold keywords throughout the text.
Don’t make the points too informative because readers can easily lose focus. Use short sentences instead, so it will be easier to form an opinion.
Use Images
It may sound strange, but using images will make the text more readable. Visual support will make a difference as people will see the main objects of the text. Moreover, visual content allows you to represent data that is impossible to describe via text. For example, if it’s an analytical text, you can support it with graphs and schemes, showing how the stats changed or the dynamic (growing or shrinking). Adding visual content also resolves the problem of structuring the text. Reading the text that consists of similar paragraphs is boring. However, the overall readability level rises when you see visuals that match the context and provide more data.
Avoid Jargon
Another way to simplify your writing and enhance readability is to cut off all jargon. People who read your texts may not be familiar with specific words or phrases you use. They won’t spend time searching for the meaning or read the fragment multiple times to understand the context. Moreover, using non-familiar words may discourage people, so they won’t keep reading. The best you can do here is to replace jargon with simpler words.
Take Time to Edit and Proofread the Text
The highly readable text also has zero errors. When people spot an error or find a fragment that is written incorrectly, they slowly lose interest in the text. If there are several mistakes, they may even stop reading and write a negative review if possible. Neglecting quality may ruin your reputation as an author. Take your time and edit the text once it’s finished. Use tools to speed up the process and remove all the issues. Moreover, once you use grammar checkers, they may offer better options to replace the existing words and phrases, making your text look fresher and catchy.
Let Someone Read Your Text
Let someone else decide if you are unsure whether your text is readable and understandable. Ask one of your friends to read the text and rate the readability level. A fresh look may help you identify the gaps and weak points so you can change the structure, replace complicated words and terms with similar options, and simplify your content.
Remove the Water From the Text
There is a misconception that a large text will look more convincing and interesting, and the only way to achieve a bigger size is to add unnecessary information that does not have any value. Moreover, losing the main idea in a watery text is easy when you add too many details or facts that don’t mean much to the topic.
How do we remove watery content from the text? Once you have finished the draft, read it after a break and decide what information looks unnecessary or has little value to the topic. Remove it and read the text once again. If you see that the meaning of the text hasn’t changed, it means that your text doesn’t need such information.
Final Thoughts
Enhancing readability can be achieved via a complex approach. You’ll see how good your writing is when you implement all the mentioned methods. Moreover, when you gain experience, you will make changes in the early stages of writing, composing a better structure and using simple vocabulary, avoiding jargon and complex phrases.