Like most things these days, readability can be given a numeric score. The one we tend to use is the Flesch reading ease score. (To see how  Microsoft word actually works this out for you, click here)

There are other indicators but broadly, they judge a document on 2 things.

1. The length of sentances (number of words) and
2. The number syllables in each word

(The exact formulas are available on sites like wikipedia but to be honest, they do look very scary..)

Armed with these 2 simple facts and very little else, we can make very powerful inroads into improving our readability scores.

Let’s look at two sample passages of text/strong

“the purpose of this document is to ensure that all staff are aware of the required safety procedures” (18 words)

includes a lot of what we called “clearing the throat” text. It can be shortened to

“this document shows staff the safety procedures” (7 words)

Now, we want to get our flesch reading ease score as high as possible.

Why?

Because we want our document to be read and most people stop reading at the age of about 15 or 16 (when they leave school).

Here is the Flesch reading ease table.

90-100 : Very Easy
80-89 : Easy
70-79 : Fairly Easy
60-69 : Standard
50-59 : Fairly Difficult
30-49 : Difficult
0-29 : Very Confusing

How easy is this to do?

Very, if you know where to look. Look for “clearing the throat” words & phrases.

The most obvious ones are “In order to”, “the purpose of” etc.

Also, read the classified ads in the Sunday Papers – they have to be absolutely miserly with words. “Lose weight – free book shows you how” is just 7 words (and just 7 syllables also) but gets the message over perfectly…

Ok – Now off you go to look over your own documents…

Many of us spend much of the day negotiating without realising it.
Here are some examples.

• A manager or worker from a different department requests that they are allowed to jump the queue.
• A customer wants additional credit terms for buying a larger item than usual
• Your children want extra pocket money (or some pocket money) in return for doing extra jobs

Here are 7 principles common to all negotiations (adapted from Alan Fowler’s Book “Negotiation skills & strategies”)

1. Negotiation involves 2 or more parties who need (or think they need) each other’s involvement in achieving a specific outcome. It is the common interest, either in the subject matter or the outcome, which keeps the parties together.

2. Although they share some interests, parties start with different objectives (which initially) prevent an outcome.

3. (At least initially) parties consider negotiation as a better way to resolve differences than coercion or force.

4. Each party feels they have a chance (however small) at getting the “other side” to change their position whilst at the same time keeping their own position in tact.

5. When ideal outcomes are unreachable, both sides still try to reach acceptable solutions.

6. Each party has power (real or assumed) over the other. If one party is completely powerless, negotiation will not take place.

7. The negotiating process itself is usually between people – in most cases by direct verbal exchange. However,  whatever the medium (email, newspaper battle), there will be a strong human element. These include, emotions, prejudice of one or more parties.

So, putting all this together, Fowler comes up with the following definition

“Negotiation is a process of interaction by which two or more parties who consider they need to be jointly involved in an outcome, but initially have different objectives, seek by the use of argument to resolve their differences to achieve a mutually acceptable solution.”

OK, so – so far, so good… You probably already know most of this (or more likely, you knew it – you just didn’t know that you did.)

But now that we know all this, let’s start back at the beginning (& a golden rule)

The golden rule – Don’t negotiate if you don’t have to

Assuming you do have to, you can divide the negotiation into 3 stages

1. The Preparation phase – What are the real issues ; (therefore) which parties should be involved?

This can involve a bit of digging around and fact finding to work out what the real issue is (remember principle 7 above – human emotions are always involved.)

Also, which parties should be involved?

Quite often, more people or groups will want to be involved than really needs to be.

An effective manager will be able to cut through the emotions and focus on the issues that matter. This goes back to one of our golden rules of “never trusting anything you are told without independently confirming it”

Or as Rudolph Giuliani (ex Mayor of New York says – “prepare relentlessly”

Hopefully, this will help you in your negotiations ; next time you are negotiating with someone who hasn’t prepared properly – we challenge you to pause the meeting and ask they come back.

Leave a comment to let us know how you get on…

Wikipedia says that

“Extensive research has shown that easy-reading text improves comprehension, retention,  reading speed, and reading persistence.”

Now this should ring bells for us managers and trainers – getting our message over quicker and with less resistance and scope for misunderstanding.

But how can we incorporate readability as an everyday habit.

Let’s face it – when most of us write, we just start writing. When we have finished, we give it a quick once over, maybe spell check it and send it to where it is going. Very few people will read and re read to check for clarity.

Lets look at a sample survey which you can find on almost any website or catalogue

“The following questionnaire is designed to provide us with information that will help us to improve the site and make it more relevant to your needs.  Please select your answers from the drop down menus and radio buttons below. The questionnaire should only take you 2-3 minutes to complete.”

At the bottom of this form, you can chose to leave your name, address and telephone number. If you leave your name, address and telephone number, you may be contacted in the future to participate in a survey to help us improve the site.

If you have any comments or concerns that require a response,please contact customer services.”

Here are some comments

The following questionnaire is designed to provide us with information that will help us to improve the site and make it more relevant to your needs.

This is just “clearing the throat” type of writing, it makes the writer feel important. Remember – you aren’t writing for you – you are writing for your reader…

“Please select your answers from the drop down menus and radio buttons below.”

Most people know how to fill in a form on a website. You are likely to scare them by using phrases like radio buttons. Most people don’t know what they are.

“The questionnaire should only take you 2-3 minutes to complete.”

I am not yet convinced of WHY I should actually fill this in yet. The word “should” generally means it might actually take much longer. (“Your car should be ready by 5pm” generally means “It won’t be..”)

At the bottom of this form, you can chose to leave your name, address and telephone number. If you leave your name, address and telephone number, you may be contacted in the future to participate in a survey to help us improve the site.

This looks scary and the reader is not sure if they are likely to be pestered again (“you may be contacted in the future”). The writer obviously hasn’t read the text back to themselves. Putting long phrases like your name, address and telephone number back to back makes it hard work to read.

If you have any comments or concerns that require a response,please contact customer services

But it doesn’t actually tell me how to do this…

In the next couple of days – we will re-write the text making it much easier to read.

Related course – Plain english