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Make your content easy to read

Our writing should:

  • be helpful and focus on the needs of our readers rather than our own needs
  • be easy to understand
  • use plain English by writing simply, clearly and concisely
  • avoid using technical language and long, formal terms

Our content should be understood the first time 

The average reading age in London and the UK is 9 years old. This means it’s important that we write easy-to-read content that can be understood without specialist knowledge or a certain level of education. 

You can check how readable your content is by using apps like Hemingway.

Read a GDS blog about easy to read content

Use short sentences

  • express one main point per sentence
  • check sentences with more than 25 words to see if you can replace them with several shorter sentences

✔ Long sentences can be confusing for readers. They also make it difficult to understand the main point the sentence is trying to make. Readers have to reread the sentence to understand what it says.

❌ Long sentences can be confusing for readers and make it difficult to understand the main point the sentence is trying to make, which means that readers have to reread the sentence to understand what it says.

Use short paragraphs

  • express one main point per paragraph
  • keep paragraphs short
  • three or four lines of text will usually be enough

Write like you are having a conversation with someone

  • picture your reader and write as if you were talking directly to them
  • whenever possible, address them as ‘you’ and the Council as ‘we’
  • use contractions like “we’re” or “you’re”

✔ You can leave the bin outside your home and our vans will pick it up when we’re in your neighbourhood.

❌ Residents can leave the bin outside their home and the vans run by the council Council will pick it up when it is in the neighbourhood.

Assume your reader has no prior knowledge

  • write so that anybody can understand what you are saying, even if they have little or no previous knowledge
  • you still need to make sure you give them only the information they need to achieve their goals, and nothing more

Use simple vocabulary

Read our guide to using simple vocabulary and easy to read language.