For financial advisors, for banks, for B2B service platforms, for insurance companies… Many texts to unravel have passed and continue to pass on our desks. Each time the work is: understand what we are talking about to find the crux of the matter, operate the sophisticated art of language simplification, work creatively to make the text more engaging - not easy when you have to work on content that has more numbers than letters of the alphabet!
In this article, I'm talking about language simplification. I'll give you some suggestions to improve the quality and effectiveness of a text, and make it shine for clarity and immediacy.
Nobody likes difficult if anymore, not even the Public Administration!
"The rigor of the writer must be matched by the understanding of the reader."
The writing pen is not that of Italo Calvino, Tullio De Mauro, Gianrico Carofiglio or Luisa Carrada – experts who have given us great contributions on the clarity of language. The pen that writes is the blue one of the Ministry of Public Administration. More precisely, the sentence you read is extrapolated from the Directive on the simplification of language.
Yes, all true: the Department of Public Administration has issued a series of directives to simplify the bureaucratic language of Public Administrations in favor of simpler and more immediate communication, which puts citizens first. This one can be called a revolution: even the last of the bulwarks of the difficile has been captured (at least in theory)!
“The administration that responds in a precise but natural way, using everyday words, does not trivialize the content or demean its role, but takes the initiative to change the rules of the game. This, together with precision, is true authority.”
Luisa Carrada writes it. In one of his articles he explains how, through simplification, the distances between the writer and the reader can be shortened – even where the distances seem gigantic, such as those which separate the Public Administration from the citizens. To shorten them, a simpler and more realistic language is needed. Far from simple, however, is being able to get it.
Simplification advice in the editorial field
The words to use, the structure of the sentences and the formulation and organization of the concepts to be expressed. Here's where it starts. Since, as you already know, using terms of the sector, archaic or borrowed from other languages, formulating long and complex sentences, full of subordinate, engraved or relative sentences, reduces the degree of understanding of a text. And when this happens, we lose the reader and stop communicating.
Here are some tips for clearer and more understandable texts:
- Choose the right words for your target: the lexicon must be tailored to the audience. The more heterogeneous it is, the more it is good to use words that fall within the basic vocabulary. However, the choice is very wide: Tullio De Mauro (in his basic vocabulary) has about 7000!
- Clarity first: always ask yourself if there isn't a clearer word, closer to the concept you want to express, than the one you're thinking about. Work with the thesaurus always open.
- Use acronyms wisely: at the first occurrence add a parenthesis that explains them in full.
- Avoid periphrasis: a few turns of words, more right words.
- Cut dry branches: adverbs, long lists of adjectives (especially if synonyms), not very incisive engravings. All this weighs down the text, slows down reading, complicates understanding.
- Go for transparency: prefer the active form and avoid impersonal and obscure constructions.
- Formulate short and linear sentences: arrange subject, verb and complements in order. Don't tangle the sentences with a large number of subordinates and coordinates, or you risk losing the thread of the reader.
- Check for linearity: make sure that the text is linear and presented in a logical order, that there is no reasoning or implicit information.
PS I remind you that the "readability" of a text, as the Anglo-Saxons call it, can be measured.
Simplification advice in the graphic field
Now I'm moving to the art room, because to simplify a text and help the reader understand it, you also need to work on the design side. And in this task, copywriters and artists work hand in hand.
Here is the list of things to always check, graphic side, in a text:
- Is the font big enough? It must be read effortlessly. Don't forget to check its mobile readability too!
- Is the font easily readable? Between a sticks font and a serif font, the former is cleaner and easier to read (especially when the font is not very large). Watch out also for calligraphers: they tire reading a lot and often become completely incomprehensible.
- Is the line spacing wide enough? Don't give your readers a headache.
- Is there enough contrast between font and background? Also make sure that the color combination (text-background) is not annoying. For example: red text on a blue background creates a very unpleasant optical effect.
- Does the text have pauses and footholds? Divide it into paragraphs to create breaks, use bulleted lists to order information, use bold to emphasize salient information.
- Do graphics add value? The visual is not decoration and it is not a filler: it is an element that completes the text and adds its communicative power.
We're done with the advice. Now I leave you like this, with the crux of the skein in hand, wishing you happy "unraveling".