I have found the following information useful in improving the readability of my posts:
Persuasive Writing Techniques
The post should use techniques to persuaded the reader about the point that you are trying to make. Examples can be found in 10 Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques. Another aspect is to make the reader curious, examples can be found in Antidote for partisanship? In science, curiosity seems to work.
Advice from famous writers can help improve a post, for example Kurt Vonnegut has given us some of the most advice on the art and craft of writing see: How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word, or George Orwell’s Six Rules of Writing:
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Although not advice from a blog about making writing persuasive the following video describes the Feynman Technique for taking complex subject and translating it into everyday language.
Point of View
Point of view is the writer’s way of deciding who is telling the story to whom. Establishing a clear point of view is important because it dictates how your reader interprets characters, events, and other important details. There are three kinds of point of view: first person, second person, and third person. The following video gives a clear description:
Word Count
Word limit is important for two reasons: the length of the article should fit into the time that the target reader has to read the post e.g. a couple of minutes over a coffee, and an editing discipline - keeping the post to a target word length helps to sharpen up the thought(s) that are being communicated. The average reading speed is about 183 words per minute.
Using website such as Count Wordsmith will analyse the post’s text, including the number of metaphors and similes, so that it can be improved.
Readability Tests
The following tests can be used to improve the readability of the text in a post:
Fog Index
| Fog Index | Reading level by grade |
|---|---|
| 17 | College Graduate |
| 16 | College Senior |
| 15 | College junior |
| 14 | College sophomore |
| 13 | College freshman |
| 12 | High school senior |
| 11 | High school junior |
| 10 | High school sophomore |
| 9 | High school freshman |
| 8 | Eighth grade |
| 7 | Seventh grade |
| 6 | Sixth grade |
See the following website Gunning Fog Index where text can be cut & paste to calculate the index.
Dale-Chall
| Score | Notes |
|---|---|
| 4.9 or lower | easily understood by an average 4th-grade student or lower |
| 5.0 - 5.9 | easily understood by an average 5th- or 6th-grade student |
| 6.0 - 6.9 | easily understood by an average 7th- or 8th-grade student |
| 7.0 - 7.9 | easily understood by an average 9th- or 10th-grade student |
| 8.0 - 8.9 | easily understood by an average 11th- or 12th-grade student |
| 9.0 - 9.9 | easily understood by an average college student |
See the following website for a Dale-Cahll calculator.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease Score
| Score | School level (US) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 100 - 90 | 5th grade | Very easy to read. Easily understood by an average 11-year-old student. |
| 90 - 80 | 6th grade | Easy to read. Conversational English for consumers. |
| 80 - 70 | 7th grade | Fairly easy to read. |
| 70 - 60 | 8th & 9th grade | Plain English. Easily understood by 13 to 15 year old students |
| 60 - 50 | 10th & 12th grade | Fairly difficult to read. |
| 50 - 30 | College | Difficult to read. |
| 30 - 10 | College graduate | Very difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates. |
| 10 - 0 | Professional | Extremely difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates |
See the following for a website for a Flesch Reading Ease Score calculator
Grammar
To keep a post’s text lean make sure that adverbs are kept to a minimum. Another aspect is when to use capital letters, apart from at the beginning of a sentence.
Ensure that most of the sentences active i.e. the subject of the sentence is performing the action. For example, Dickens’ use of passive sentences ( mainly dialogue and formal statements ) is less than 10%. Websites such as Grammarly have a passive voice checker but is not free. However, the Hemmingway App is free.
A cat, a hat and a simple measure of gobbledygook: How readable is your writing? is a general article that uses some of the reading tests described above and applied to financial industry.
Punctuation
Punctuation is important when clarifying the thought(s) being expressed in the post.
Titles
A series of blogs that discuss titles and their impact on the readers that I have found useful are:
How to Write Headlines That Work - making the title ( or headline ) so that a browser turns into a reader.
5 Easy Tricks to Help You Write Catchy Headlines
The following generates some interesting headlines: headline title maker
Endings
It is important to close the post in a way that the reader remembers what you have written about. Some ideas can be found in 9 Ways to Crush the End of a Blog Post.
Some ideas on endings for endings can be found in books, see The 10 Best Book Endings
Website Copywriting
Website copywriting is the process of writing a website and typically covers: blogs, landing pages, product pages etc. The Secrets of Website Copywriting covers topics such as key word research, site structure, pillow pages and “call to action”. Also, FIVE TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL SEO STRATEGIES. gives advice about developing an SEO friendly strategy for a blog.
Fallacies to avoid
If the post has a structured argument underpinning then there are several fallacious arguments to be avoided. How to Argue Against Common Fallacies gives over twenty examples of arguments that are fallacious.
Inspiring Quotes
An old trawler man’s saying “Fail we may, sail we must” - in other words it is better to write something and fail than never to have written anything.
“Writing a book is not unlike building a house or planning a battle or painting a picture. The technique is different, the materials are different, but the principle is the same. The foundations have to be laid, the data assembled, and the premises must bear the weight of their conclusions.”
“The whole when finished is only the successful presentation of a theme” - Winston Churchill
“The heat of the sun on your face and the calculations performed to predict its path are like ‘a cross bearing’.” - Winston Churchill
“It is not the state of the letter that delivers the message - it is the benefit of the message that is important” - Winston Churchill