Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink

Bad habits may have started when you were pushing to reach a word count in a writing assignment. That conflicts with the fact that the more you write, the less likely people are to read what you have written. A famous Blaise Pascal quote sums it up. “I would have written a shorter letter if I’d had more time.” Research also shows that people tend to add words while editing. You need to take more time to be concise, It will reduce follow-up, misunderstandings, and requests left unfulfilled.
Three rules apply. 1. Use fewer words. The authors provide a list of wordy and concise examples. 2. Include fewer ideas. There is no rule for how many is too many. Just cut as many as you can while keeping the most important. 3. Make fewer requests. The more you ask, the less likely readers are to do any of it.

Easy reading has shorter sentences and it uses more common words. There are readability formulas that consider these factors and offer either a numeric score or a grade level equivalent. The New York Times, for example, uses an eighth grade reading level. Readers are more likely to get distracted with long sentences and complex words. You might have to unlearn efforts you made to sound smart by using complex, long sentences.
Even in academia there is a shift to more readable work. The most readable scholarly articles are five times as likely to win awards as are the least readable ones. Other tips include: use active voice, write in the first person, use parallel structure, and keep subject, verb, and object near each other. Research shows that novelists and presidents have gradually used shorter sentences from 1800 to today. Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea was written at a fourth grade level and won a Nobel Prize. There are many examples here.

The design you use can make a big difference in the results you get. If it’s an email, your subject is key. Don’t start with something generic like “Today’s Meeting.” Another tip comes from the US Army, which advises “BLUF” or put the “Bottom Line Up Front.” Another way to say this comes from journalism with “Don’t Bury the Lead.” Abstracts and executive summaries can also help.
Use bullets or subheads to separate topics and combine related items. In addition to the first thing, the last thing is also more likely to be remembered as it’s the last thing seen. Don’t attach too much text to a single bullet or use too many bullets. Headings should be just long enough to do the job. If you can, use a visual of some sort to convey key information. Simple bar and line graphs can be effective as can tables. Be sure to check out Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd Ed.

The authors do mention that ALL CAPS is more difficult to read. Many people also interpret its use as SHOUTING. With that in mind, use is sparingly. The other four, underlining, italics, color highlighting, and bolding, are all interpreted as highlighting the most important text. Use it for that, but don’t use too much or too many different types.
(Doug: The authors fail to mention that extended italics is more difficult to read and that underlining shouldn’t be used at all as the line cuts through descenders, which decreases readability.) Bold is safe, but too much distracts from what is really important. For texts and social media all you have are all caps and emojis. Bullets can make it easier to read things like lists. Sub bullets, however, may be skipped over. See the examples here.

Try to tailor your title or subject line to readers who should care because it effects them personally or deals with something they value. You should also lead off with who should care about your content and why. Research supports this and there are some interesting examples here.

While not all writing requires a response, you need to make it as easy as possible if you need a reply. When you need the reader to make a choice, consider making the desired choice the default. For example, if you want employees to opt in to an automatic savings plan, make opting in what happens if they do nothing (the default). You can do the same as an educator if you want parents to opt in to a program where they are automatically informed about student absences or poor grades.
While open-ended questions can give you more information, they are less likely to gather responses than yes/no questions. For appointments or meetings you can just say here is the time and place and let me know if you can’t make it. If you need to refer to information in a previous email, include it so the reader doesn’t have to go find it. Try to limit the number of choices you offer. If you put website addresses in hardcopy documents, keep them short or shorten them. Try to avoid having readers sign in with usernames and passwords that they may have forgotten. There are tools you can use to gather the information you need with a few clicks.