Despite their much-criticized shortcomings, many organizations consider
readability formulas an important tool to evaluate the readability of text. Here are reasons
why you should use readability formulas in your organization:
1. Most Americans have limited reading ability, which means their reading
grade-level balances between average and poor. It makes sense to prepare text in plain
English if your readers have limited reading capabilities. How do you determine if your
text is readable from your readers’ point of view? Simple. Use readability formulas.
2. If the text is not readable, the purpose of writing it in the first place gets
defeated. For instance, let’s assume you’ve written an instruction manual for your
employees. If your employees cannot read this manual, they will never understand the
true meaning of its contents; this will adversely impact their productivity. Using
readability formulas can prevent such a scenario and tell you beforehand if your text is of
any value to your employees.
3. Readability formulas help you to prepare a readable text. In other words,
these formulas can save you time and money that you might have wasted in writing a
complicated document, which is not useful for the target audience.
4. Just imagine how frustrated your target audience feels trying to read an
ill-prepared document. Studies show that enforcing difficult text can have adverse effects
on the overall mood and psychology of your customers. They may feel confused by a
clumsily prepared text and opt for another provider.
5. Preparing text costs money. If you produce an unreadable text, you are
increasing your organization’s operating costs. By using readability formulas, you are
almost 80% sure that your readers find your text useful; thereby, keeping your costs
down.
6. Most reputable word-processors, like MS-Word, have a built-in readability
formula feature that helps you to assess the readability of a document. If you can gain
such a useful insight into the document without manually calculating the readability, why
won’t you use it?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Scott is a contributing writer for Literacy News and a writing tutor for Writing Answers.
