Communications Guide - Fran O'hara

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Copy and Editorial Guidelines 4 Section 4.1: Clear writing It is vital to communicate successfully our achievements to our audiences in a way that emphasises our unique role and focus on outcomes. Our wide range of audiences means that we have to write in a variety of ways, but it is important to use plain language and write in a way that is outcome focussed. We are a publicly funded body and need to clearly demonstrate the value and effectiveness of our work. When writing a document in Word you can check its “readability”. This looks at average sentence length and syllables per word to give an idea of how easy a document is to read. The scores are interpreted as: Flesch Reading Ease Score Readability Level 0 - 29 Very difficult 30 - 49 Difficult 50 - 59 Fairly difficult 60 - 69 Standard 70 - 79 Fairly easy 80 - 89 Easy 90 - 100 Very easy Source: Professional RFP letters For public audiences, for instance, media comments and leaflets, aim for a score of 69 or below. For specialist audiences, you may need to write in a more complex way, but we would not recommend a score which is below 30, except for very specialist writing. Communications Guide Page 4.1
Copy and Editorial Guidelines 4 Using the readability feature on the Microsoft Word programme you will also see the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score. It is designed for US school levels, the grades can be interpreted as follows: Level/Grade Typical age (at end of the school year) 1st Grade 6–7 (UK year 2) 2nd Grade 7–8 (UK year 3) 3rd Grade 8–9 (UK year 4) 4th Grade 9–10 (UK year 5) 5th Grade 10–11 (UK year 6) 6th Grade 11–12 (UK year 7) 7th Grade 12–13 (UK year 8) 8th Grade 13–14 (UK year 9) 9th Grade (Freshman) 14–15 (UK year 10) 10th Grade (Sophomore) 15–16 (UK year 11) 11th Grade (Junior) 16–17 (UK year 12) 12th Grade (Senior) 17–18 Making your communications more effective There are many things you can do to make your writing more engaging: 1. If a document will have a lot of different audiences, consider presenting the information in different ways. Diagrams can help guide people through processes. This example of writing for different audiences is taken from the Commissioner’s Report 2009-10. The primary audience is politicians, but we know it is read by stakeholders and older people as well. The title explains the objective that this page relates to: “Promote awareness of the interests of older people in Wales and the need to safeguard those interests.” Using simple language to give a bit more detail and allow the reader to decide if they want to read on: “We work hard to ensure that the interests of older people are high on the agenda in Wales and are fully taken into account when governments and service providers make decisions. Examples of how we have done this are:” Communications Guide Page 4.2
Page 1 and 2: Communications Guide July 2011
Page 3 and 4: 1 Introduction
Page 5 and 6: Introduction 1 Section 1.2: Communi
Page 7 and 8: 2 Our Audiences who we communicate
Page 9 and 10: 3 About the Commission who we are
Page 11 and 12: About the Commission - who we are 3
Page 19: Copy and Editorial Guidelines 4 Sec
Page 23 and 24: Copy and Editorial Guidelines 4 Sec
Page 25 and 26: Copy and Editorial Guidelines 4 Sec
Page 27 and 28: Copy and Editorial Guidelines 4 Ope
Page 29 and 30: Copy and Editorial Guidelines 4 Out
Page 31 and 32: Accessibility Guidelines 5 Section
Page 37 and 38: Design Guidelines 6 Section 6.0: Lo
Page 39 and 40: Design Guidelines 6 Reversed logo -
Page 41 and 42: Design Guidelines 6 • Use the pri
Page 43 and 44: Design Guidelines 6 Section 6.4: Co
Page 45 and 46: 7 Photography and Illustration Guid
Page 47 and 48: Photography and Illustration Guidel
Page 49 and 50: 8 Templates

Communications Guide - Fran O'hara

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