by 
During the past month, our style guide discussion series has illustrated what a style guide is and why it’s such an important resource. Creating and defining the standards for your company’s internal and external written communications helps to ensure that your brand is communicating consistently, accurately, and with a single, unified voice.
Whether your style guide takes the form of a comprehensive document or a simple reference sheet, it should address these key topics:
- Brand voice
- Style preferences
- Industry vernacular
- SEO terms
- Reading level
We have covered each of these subjects in a weekly blog post (links to previous posts in the series are above). And our final topic is reading level.
What Do We Mean By Reading Level?
When using the term “reading level” in a general sense, it is referring to the ease with which a reader can understand written text. For common business communications, an 8th-grade reading level is ideal – this is the reading level for most newspapers.
The goal for most content writing is to communicate in a way that is easy for your audience to understand, yet still be perceived as knowledgeable. This is particularly important for HR, as your customer will likely not engage with content that is full of vocabulary they don’t know. Using simpler language helps your reader connect with the information quickly, and builds trust over time.
How Is Reading Level Determined?
There are a variety of different readability systems available, some of which were created for specific industries (medical, healthcare, automotive, and education). The two formulas that are widely acknowledged as best for most sectors are Flesch Reading Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.
Flesch Reading Ease Test
In the 1940s, the Associated Press worked with Rudolph Flesch to develop methods for improving the readability of newspapers.
He developed the Flesch Reading Ease test to determine the level of education someone needed to easily read a piece of text.
This test rates text on a 100-point scale and calculates a score by subtracting the average number of syllables per word (ASW) from the average sentence length (ASL).
The higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For standard business writing, the score should typically be between 60 and 70.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
One downside of the above Flesch Reading Ease Test is that it is not immediately understood by all. So in the 1970s, the U.S. Navy decided to amend the Flesch Reading Ease for the purpose of evaluating their technical manuals. The result is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Test, which has become the most commonly used reading level test.
This test rates text on a U.S. school grade level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth-grader can understand the document.
Based on the Flesch Grade Level, a score of 7.0 – 8.0 is considered to be accessible by a general audience.
Why Is Reading Level Important?
Your customers are faced with an ever-increasing amount of information, so it’s vital that you do all you can to increase the likelihood that they will actually read and interact with the content you publish.
A readability score is a helpful tool in determining how easy your text is to understand, which has a direct impact on the extent your intended reader will engage with and take in your message.
To demonstrate how reading level impacts clarity, let’s take a look at the following boilerplate insurance privacy policy disclaimer paragraph, which has a Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level of 15:
We may, as permitted by law, share information about you with a third party for necessary servicing of your policy or for other normal business transactions. The types of persons or organizations with which we may share this information include those that perform professional business or insurance functions for us, such as independent claim adjusters and examiners. We also share customer information as necessary to handle your claims and protect you against fraud and unauthorized transactions. We may also provide information to a court, government agency, or other third parties when subpoenaed or as otherwise required by law.
And here is the same content, written with a target Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level score of 10:
As permitted by law, we may share information about you with a third party to service your policy. We also share your information as needed to handle claims, for other standard insurance functions, and to protect you against fraud and unauthorized transactions. We may also provide information to a court or government agency when required by law.
When it comes to writing for the online space, the reading level may even influence SEO, as these algorithms are programmed to return the most relevant and appropriate answers to specific search queries.
Fortunately, there are several readability test tools available online, as browser plug-ins. And, reading level statistics are included (along with spelling and grammar check) in most popular word processing software programs.
If you use Microsoft Word, you can find out the Flesch Reading Ease score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for your content by going to the file menu, selecting options, and then proofing. There, you can choose to show readability statistics.
Incorporating reading level targets in your style guide helps your team create content that is audience-appropriate, engaging, valuable, and understandable. And when your communications are consistent and easy to comprehend, you build trust with your readers.
A style guide that includes reading level information is also especially helpful for writers, like me, who write for different clients — all who have their own approach.
If you want help with a Style Guide or any part of the process, please let me know. This is a service my team and I offer. We would be glad to assist and support you in creating this important reference for your business.
