Always write for people with varied reading skills. This is particularly important when the readers’ task is complicated.
People often write with the assumption that their readers are much like themselves. So a lawyer writes for another lawyer. A doctor writes for colleagues who know the same medical terms. A policy adviser writes for people who are familiar with policy documents.
Even when writing for customers or citizens, writers in organisations tend to presume that their readers are more proficient than they are in reality. They often imagine professionals, highly educated customers, or people who are used to reading complex information.
That may feel logical.
But of course your readers are not all lawyers, doctors or policy advisers. So why write for the strongest readers only? Why not rather communicate clearly with everyone who needs your message?
Europeans differ enormously in their reading skills
The OECD regularly measures adult skills through its international study Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The latest study covered 31 countries and economies. The OECD published the results in 2024.
The results show large differences in reading skills. Some adults can understand short texts when information is clearly presented. Others can understand long, dense texts with complex or hidden meanings.
These differences also exist in countries that perform well. The Netherlands performed 10 percentage points higher than average in the OECD survey, but 16% of Dutch adults have low literacy proficiency. So there is no ‘average reader’. The more complex your text becomes, the fewer readers can easily understand your messages.
Being able to read is not the same as understanding easily
Many adults have the reading skills that they need for everyday life. But this does not make every text easy for them.
The PIAAC study measures reading skills on a scale from 0 to 500. It divides this scale into six proficiency levels. A reader with a literacy score of 300 is at Level 3. Give this reader a reading task that matches their literacy score, and there is a 67% probability that they will complete it successfully. If you give the same reader a much harder reading task, at 350 points, the probability of success drops to 28%. More complex information makes successful understanding less likely.
And what about highly skilled readers?
Highly skilled readers can deal with complex texts. But that does not mean they prefer them.
Imagine a manager reading an insurance policy between two meetings. Or a doctor checking pension information after a long working day. They want answers. What does this mean for me? What do I need to know? What should I do?
Clear language helps readers find those answers quickly. Plain language is therefore not only about accessibility. It is also about efficient communication.
Clarity has business value
Clear communication can also save organisations time and money. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is a good example. The organisation rewrote several frequently used letters in plain language. It then measured how readers responded.
One rewritten letter was about mandatory vehicle inspections. It generated 40% fewer enquiries than the old version. Readers benefited too. They needed 40% less time to understand what they had to do.
Clearer communication reduced work on both sides. Readers spent less time understanding the message. The organisation spent less time answering questions.
Write for everyone
The PIAAC study shows that reading skills vary widely. It also shows that difficult reading tasks require higher reading skills. Plain language does not mean removing important information. It means helping readers find, understand and use that information.
This matters even more when your organisation communicates across Europe. Countries and languages differ, and so do your readers. Plain Language Europe helps organisations make complex information clear across languages and borders.
References:
OECD (2024), Do Adults Have the Skills They Need to Thrive in a Changing World?: Survey of Adult Skills 2023, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b263dc5d-en.
OECD PIAAC. Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development. https://www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/piaac.html
Klart språk gir resultater.
10 eksempler fra stat og kommune
About Simo Goddijn
Simo has been working on plain language for more than 20 years. Plain language training and writing are her daily business. The long experience enables her to advise all kinds of organisations on how to work out a plain language strategy. She works for governments, financial companies, patient organisations, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, housing organisations and many more.
See Simo Goddijn’s LinkedIn profile or visit the BureauTaal website.
