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How readable is your law blog?

Writing for the Web is different than writing offline copy. As Crawford Killian, publisher of Writing for the Web, says: “Reading text on a screen is a lot harder than reading the same text on paper. Most Web surfers scan text rather than reading word by word. So you need to keep your text as clear, concise, and readable as possible.”

You can get the readability score of any website from Readability.info. There are several scores based on different tools and find out what the scores mean. You can also see the readability scores of the more popular Web sites, such as the New York Times.

By running my blog through the test, I found there's a few things I need to work on. My FOG grade level is 11 where writing for grade 7 is optimal. My Flesh 'reading easy formula' is 49.5 where 100 is ideal.

My average sentence length is 32.1 words. Twenty to thirty is preferable. My paragraphs average is 4.5 sentences, where 2 to 3 is best.

I really need to work on verb types. Passive verbs ( 'to be' ) should be used sparingly. My sentences use the passive context 38% of the time.

Thanks Crawford for telling me about Readability.info in yourpost this week. We need more people like you helping us write for the Web.

  • http://www.delawoffice.com/news.html Bill Slawski

    I think that a review of these types of tests is a little misleading when considering online readability.
    I'll explain why.
    The readability tests that you point towards are just as valid for documents offline as online. They are indications of how readable something is regardless of whether it is on the web or not.
    If you're concerned about making a blog post more readable, consider some other strategies:
    Use bulleted lists
    Start with your conclusion, then explain how you arrived at it.
    Use bolding (sparingly), to emphasis an important word or phrase
    Use color (sparingly) to emphasis an important word or phrase
    Include meaningful subheadings in longer posts
    Discuss only one idea per paragraph
    Use less words that you would in an offline document
    Make your text resizable via browser controls or with a combination of javascript and Cascading Style Sheets
    Avoid presenting text so that it runs from one edge of the screen to the other.
    Make certain that there is enough contrast between your text, and the background upon which it appears.
    Position your text with left justification rather than full – stretching words across a screen can cause different widths of space between words on different lines.
    Use a sans serif font rather than a serif one for a monitor – while the serifs aid viewing on paper, the lesser resolution of most monitors can cause those curves in letters to appear blurry.
    Most of those suggestions are geared towards making a page on a monitor easier to read.
    Here are some other readability suggestions that could apply to any documents:
    Avoid jargon, as much as possible, especially if writing to a nontechnical audience
    Use acronymns as little as possible, and when you do, explain what they mean the first time you use them.
    Avoid prepositional phrases when possible.
    Limit your use of local dialect if your audience is intended to be broader than the region you live within.
    Be careful about the use of idioms if your audience is international. Phrases that may make sense to a national audience may be misunderstood by an international one.
    Use care with cultural references that older or younger readers may not understand.
    Most of those suggestions could help to make your pages more readable. While it can be helpful to use the readability tests you've pointed to, a readability test probably won't help you with these potential problems.
    Cheers,
    Bill

  • http://www.lexblog.com Kevin O'Keefe

    This is great Bill. Thanks for taking the time to comment at such length. I may just turm your comment into a post if you do not mind.
    For those folks who may not have seen it, Bill runs a great blog at:
    http://www.delawoffice.com/news.html

  • http://www.delawareintercorp.com Bill

    You're welcome, Kevin.
    Of course, I should have also mentioned reviewing a post for spelling mistakes, since I seem to have forgotten how to spell “emphasize” and “acronyms”. :)
    But spelling mistakes happen.
    If you want to incorporate my comment into a post, please be my guest. I really like the focus of lexblog. You have a very nice mix of online marketing strategies, and issues that apply directly to law firms.
    Thank you also for your kind words about Delaware Law Office.
    Bill