Write so your readers know what to do

- Some people think it's just a matter of opinion whether a piece of writing is good. They think, well the way I wrote it was fine, but my boss just wanted it her way so I had to rewrite the whole thing. But plain language isn't arbitrary at all. In plain language, a piece of writing works if your readers can act on it. If they can easily use what you've written to do what they need to do, you are a plain language success. So how do you write content that helps your readers know what to do? Let me give you some tips. Tip number one, feature the action in the title or main heading of your document. Let's say you're writing an email to market a webinar your company is hosting. Which of these subject lines or titles helps emphasize the action? That's right, Register for "How to Save for Retirement" on January 23 is a plain language subject line because it makes the action clear right away. Here's another example. If you're writing a web page about a mini-grant your company's offering for teachers, the main title should be How to Apply for the Teacher Mini-Grant, not Teacher Mini-Grant Program. Tip number two. Sequence your content so the need to do comes before the need to know. As writers, we're often tempted to put background information before the need to do sections because we want to provide context or justification for the action the reader will take. But in plain language writing, we put the action sections first. Here are the sections for an email about the retirement webinar, but they're not in the right order yet. These three sections will help the reader take action so they should come before the others. And this sequence will work better. Yes, the reason your company's hosting the webinar and the speakers bio may be interesting, but those sections aren't central to the task the reader will complete. Tip number three, make the steps easy to see. Readers scan before they read and their eyes will instantly be drawn to numbered or bulleted lists that make the steps in the action easy to see. This paragraph on how to save for retirement makes the reader work to find the steps. A numbered list makes the steps easy to see and therefore easier for the reader to actually do. Be sure to download the handout. I've given a before and after rewrite of a document to show you how to write so readers know what to do. Plain language isn't about your boss's opinion, your editors opinion, or even your college professors. We can tell whether a document is written in plain language based on how the reader behaves.