0. Readability: The Five Rules of Readable Writing

[@gilamonsta5123]

Who is still reviewing this gem of a resource? So glad to have come across this. I've been struggling for hours trying to go from 8.2 to 8.0 ! Thanks for keeping it simple Professor!!!

[@juliesalazar322]

Simple and to the point, very helpful video.

[@bonniebeingbonnie001]

Enjoyable video. Thank you.

[@elsmarijn]

Thank you, you have produced a video with a very clear explanation on readable writing, which in itself is a complicated subject. Both teachers and students can profit from your explanation on 'what to do when your writing is unreadable'. We will use your video for both teachers and students within our institution for higher education.

[@johng.maguire4807]

These five aspects of your style are under your control. It can take time to learn to control them, but when you can do so, you are in full command as a writer. These ideas are not just pulled out of the air, either. Three of them were discovered by the great Rudolf Flesch, whom you can look up. The fourth, active verbs, has been around since the dawn of time. The fifth variable, concreteness, is my own contribution. Together, these five variables constitute the readability and clarity of any piece of writing there is. In other words, any passage in English can be interpreted through the filter of these five variables, from the most complex and unreadable sociology to well-written science articles to the most vivid popular novel, say, "Harry Potter."

[@johng.maguire4807]

So when I talk about Rudolf Flesch, the name sounds like a joke from a cranky Nazi movie, but the man was a great linguist and researcher. He wrote many best selling books from the late 1940s to the mid 1970s. One of his best was "The Art of Readable Writing." He's the guy who discovered that styles could be more readable or less readable, and that you could capture the readability of a piece of writing by counting words and calculating ratios. He explained it well in the book mentioned, and even though it's out of print and available mainly in libraries and 70 years old, it's still quite readable. Actually, it's more interesting than 90 per cent of today's college writing textbooks. Rudolf knew how to make a book readable, for sure.

[@YeinJean]

thank you!

[@pat4stories]

Top of the line info well said, John. Thanks for putting it in such a "hearability" form!

[@AbhishekUpadhyayINDIA]

Here, I have written a comprehensive article on what is Readability, why it matters, and how to improve it: writersmentor.com/what-readability-score-is-best-for-your-next-blog-article/

[@GenXersJustWalkItOff]

This is such a great talk! (See what I did there? LOL.) Thank you.

[@johng.maguire4807]

Thanks, Michelle, for using nice short sentences. A style that is all short sentences would become boring, but a style with a mixture of short and long sentences really refreshes the reader. It's what all should work toward. (Pass this video link on to anyone you know who might be able to use it.)

[@johng.maguire4807]

I will be giving the keynote at a conference at Houston Community College, West Loop Campus, on Feb 16th. It's open to the public. Consult readablewriting.com for details. JM