Readability refers to how easy a piece of text is to read and understand. It is often measured in terms of reading level. Reading level is an estimate of the minimum education level people need to be able to read a piece of text. 

The Style Manual recommends you write to a reading level – after the removal of proper names and titles – of year 7 (age range 12 to 14 years). Using literacy statistics, this means around 83% of the Australian population is likely to understand your content.

Readable and accessible

Style Manual strongly encourages aiming for the highest level of accessibility for online content. We base our reading level guidelines on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AAA which recommends a reading level of ‘lower secondary’.

These guidelines benefit everyone. Even highly literate people appreciate easy-to-read content, especially when the subject matter is complex or unfamiliar. And writing in a clear, concise way should not be seen as ‘dumbing down’ your content. No-one has ever complained about content being too easy to understand. Keeping your content clear and concise takes skill, but it is worth the effort.

Remember that many of your users already consume complex writing in their work and might choose to curl up with a Thomas Pynchon or Margaret Atwood in the evening. Stop to consider what your audience wants to achieve – do they really need to be challenged by your content?

Settling the score

Another popular measure writers use are readability scores. These are calculated using a formula that considers such things as sentence length, word variety and grammatical complexity. These days there are lots of different formulas used by software that can score your content.

For those wanting to see how their content holds up, there are plenty of options available. Popular free resources include Hemingway or Grammarly. Microsoft Word, which is widely used across government, has the feature built into its spelling and grammar reviews.

Readability is more than a number

A readability score is simply a mathematical estimate of complexity. Readability software can help you identify problems with your writing or expose patterns that you may have overlooked. But on its own, it won’t make your content more readable. 

Try to avoid editing your content just to improve the readability score. A better score doesn’t always lead to better clarity. It’s a fine balance.

The truth is there are factors impacting readability that formulas might not measure. These include:

• letter, word and line spacing
• text size, font choice and contrast
• the logical flow of your ideas
• the content’s tone
• how you use visual aids, images or headings.

These all affect the readability of your content and many are important factors in meeting WCAG standards.

A readability checker is one tool you can use to improve content.  But readability is more than the measure available to us. While helpful, a readability score is not an end in itself. You still need to apply the basics of clear language and writing style and think about how to structure your content.