{"id":164,"date":"2017-08-09T15:57:10","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T15:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=164"},"modified":"2017-08-09T15:57:10","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T15:57:10","slug":"readability","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/chapter\/readability\/","title":{"raw":"Readability","rendered":"Readability"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"no-overflow\">\r\n<h3><b>A clear short sentence:<\/b><\/h3>\r\n<b>\u00a0<\/b>\r\n\r\n<b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>John (subject)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hit (verb)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the ball (object).\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3><b>Can become:<\/b><\/h3>\r\n<b>\u00a0<\/b>\r\n\r\nIn his first Little League game, young\u00a0<u>John<\/u>, the coach\u2019s son,\u00a0<u>hit the ball<\/u>\u00a0weakly to the pitcher\u2019s mound, retiring the side and justifying in the minds of all present the thought that John was in the lineup merely because he is the coach\u2019s son.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn standard English, the average sentence is about\u00a0<strong>17<\/strong>\u00a0words. Sentences with up to\u00a0<strong>25<\/strong>words are much more difficult to understand, and sentences with more than\u00a0<strong>25\u00a0<\/strong>words are extremely difficult for most readers to comprehend. Successful professional writers average in the low 20s.\r\n\r\n<b>\u00a0<\/b>\r\n<h3><b><u>For your writing<\/u>:<\/b><\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Keep to an average of 20 words or fewer per sentence; limit the number of subordinate clauses, phrases and modifiers;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Put separate facts and ideas into separate sentences;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Give the reader breathing space;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Allow the content of your writing to be understood more easily and remembered longer.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Use simple language when possible. In technical writing, sometimes you will have to use complex language (beginners will need to know the terminology they will use in their futures); if you use complex language make sure you define the information. We can\u2019t always avoid complex language.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<b>\u00a0<\/b>\r\n\r\n<b><u>NOTE:\u00a0<\/u><\/b><i>This advice is not justification for short, choppy, repetitive sentences.<\/i>\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"no-overflow\">\n<h3><b>A clear short sentence:<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>John (subject)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hit (verb)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the ball (object).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Can become:<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In his first Little League game, young\u00a0<u>John<\/u>, the coach\u2019s son,\u00a0<u>hit the ball<\/u>\u00a0weakly to the pitcher\u2019s mound, retiring the side and justifying in the minds of all present the thought that John was in the lineup merely because he is the coach\u2019s son.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In standard English, the average sentence is about\u00a0<strong>17<\/strong>\u00a0words. Sentences with up to\u00a0<strong>25<\/strong>words are much more difficult to understand, and sentences with more than\u00a0<strong>25\u00a0<\/strong>words are extremely difficult for most readers to comprehend. Successful professional writers average in the low 20s.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<h3><b><u>For your writing<\/u>:<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep to an average of 20 words or fewer per sentence; limit the number of subordinate clauses, phrases and modifiers;<\/li>\n<li>Put separate facts and ideas into separate sentences;<\/li>\n<li>Give the reader breathing space;<\/li>\n<li>Allow the content of your writing to be understood more easily and remembered longer.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Use simple language when possible. In technical writing, sometimes you will have to use complex language (beginners will need to know the terminology they will use in their futures); if you use complex language make sure you define the information. We can\u2019t always avoid complex language.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><u>NOTE:\u00a0<\/u><\/b><i>This advice is not justification for short, choppy, repetitive sentences.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-164\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Eng 235. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Jeff Meyers. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Clinton Community College. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":23590,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Eng 235\",\"author\":\"Jeff Meyers\",\"organization\":\"Clinton Community College\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-164","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":25,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/164\/revisions\/165"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/25"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/164\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-clinton-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}