A Project of |
Guidelines | Rants | Patterns | Poems | Services | Classes | Press | Blog | Resources | About Us | Site Map |
Home > Guidelines > 1. Trim that Text! > 1b. Use short words. |
|
1b. Use short words.
Use words that readers can easily and accurately understand. Effective text features:
… In the English language, these word features often correlate: high-frequency words tend to be shorter, more pronounceable, and more concrete, and they contain fewer syllables. —Spyridakis (2000) See bibliography: Bork (1983), Horton (1990), Krug (2000), Levine (1997), Morkes & Nielsen (1997, 1998), Nielsen (1997a, 1997b, 1999f), Spyridakis (2000), Sullivan (1998), Williams (1990). |
Other ways to trim that text 1a. Cut any paper-based text by 50%. 1c. Make some sentences short. 1d. Make most paragraphs short. 1f. Move vital but tangential or supplemental material. 1g. Convert repeating categories of information into tables. 1h. Beware of cutting so far that you make the text ambiguous. |
Diagram
|
Resources on brevity |
|
|
|
Home |
Guidelines |
Rants |
Patterns |
Poems |
Services |
Classes |
Press |
Blog | Web
Writing that Works!
|