Improve readability

10 tips to help you increase the chances that learners will read and understand what you write: 

1. Use one and two syllable words if appropriate. Avoid too many 3-syllable words, unless that word is familiar or relevant to the content and learner. Define difficult words by using a glossary or providing context clues (using brackets to explain).
2. Keep sentences short and simple. Restrict the number of new ideas or concepts on a page. State the most important information at the beginning of each paragraph and create short paragraphs of no more than 3 to 4 sentences.
3. Use connective words like "firstly, initially, lastly, however, therefore" to guide learners through content.
4. Use the active voice. Passive voice makes sentences longer. Active voice makes content more concise and succinct, for example: 
   • The critic wrote a scathing review. (active)
   • A scathing review was written by the critic. (passive)
   • I will clean the house every Saturday. (active)
   • The house will be cleaned by me every Saturday. (passive)
5. Summarise important points in short paragraphs using subheadings to break up large chunks of text. This assists learners in skimming material or referring back to a specific section.
6. Learners like lists because they are easier to read. Your content should lead learners from A to B to C without skipping around multiple ideas.
7. Use Arial 12 font, spacing 1.5 and plenty of white space.
8. Think "screens" to organise content – each screen should communicate a single thought or idea.
9. Use a simple layout that does not organise content in tables or columns. Simply organised material is easier for students to read and understand, is easier for assistive technology to interpret and present, and is easier for mobile and handheld devices to resize.
10. Write content to meet web accessibility standards where possible. Click here for some ideas on writing for web accessibility: Meeting web content accessibility standards