Welcome to the St. Christopher House Adult Literacy Program's Clear Language and Design Guide. This was written by Bill Pusztai with the help of other people who were staff members at the time. It is used to train new tutors, and handed out to anyone who wants to know more about writing clearly. Its most important use is for people learning to tutor adult literacy learners, but it can be used to make any writing clearer and easier to understand.

Getting started

The goal of Clear Language and Design is to produce text that communicates clearly and easily. There are two main areas to consider: the design or look of the text, and the actual language itself. Clear language is something you can practise as you speak - it means saying what you mean as clearly and simply as you can. Clear design is something you can practise when you look at signs, brochures, advertising, anything written or printed. Look and listen critically: was it said as simply as it could be? What made it hard to understand?

The first step in writing is to decide who will be reading what you write. Who you write for will influence every decision you make about style and layout. What may be fine for an advanced reader may completely block a beginning reader, whether that be vocabulary or type style. For instance, very basic readers will need a lot of white space, but more advanced readers can handle more densely packed text.

Use a clear typeface.

Typeface is the style of lettering. Some examples are shown below. Here are some things to look for when choosing a typeface:

• letters should be of "regular" proportion, not extended or condensed

• there should be no "mirror" shapes: the letters q and p, or d and b are not mirror images of each other

• there are serifs to help (serifs are the little "hooks" on the ends of letters)

• the lines that make up the letters get thicker and thinner

• the letters are not distorted, simplified, or ornamented with distracting lines

Times New Roman is the easiest typeface to read, according to scientists; however, there is some evidence that Verdana is the easiest to read on a computer screen.  This is there is a lot of space between the letters.  

Here are some typefaces to compare. Of these, Times Roman is probably the easiest and Scott the hardest to read.

Another aspect of typeface to consider is size.   The size of letters is measured in a unit called "points". The bigger the point size, the bigger the letter. For literacy work try to use 16 point or bigger, especially with very basic readers.

Use dark print on a light background.

Black print on white paper is best. On computer screens, sometimes white letters on black can also work well. For posters, when you might want to use coloured paper to draw attention, sit back about six feet from your finished poster and make sure the text still stands out from the background. Text should not be on top of (superimposed on) pictures, "grey scale" (dotted) background or textured backgrounds.

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Use Left Justification

Start lines against the left margin and let the right hand side "run ragged", that is, let the right edge of the text be an uneven edge. Center (each line centered), right (even edge on the right), or full justification (both left and right sides made even by padding with spaces) is harder for most people to read.

Leave lots of open space.

Leaving lots of space works two ways. First, it makes it easier to see each word on the page. Second, it makes it seem there is less to read. A page darkly covered in closely packed small type is unfriendly to the most skilled reader!

You can add space by

• changing line spacing, using one-and-a-half line spacing (or more)
• moving the top, bottom, left and right margins closer together
• adding spaces between paragraphs
• turning the page on its side, so that the longest edge of the paper runs left to right instead of up and down ("landscape orientation")

You should not try to change the "kerning", which is the space between letters. Changing kerning alters the way letters in words fit together, which can make recognition harder.

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Use Bold or Larger Type to Emphasize

Important ideas should stand out. You can use colour sometimes. Usually bold type is the easiest way to emphasize. Sometimes you can underline - but watch out, if the underlining is too close to the bottom of the letters, that can be confusing for new readers. It makes the letters seem to run together.

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Use upper case and lower case normally.

English uses upper case (capital, majuscules) to mark the beginning of a sentence and to mark proper nouns (names). Upper and lower case are important cues when reading - using all caps short-circuits these cues.

Mixed-case words keep their distinctive shapes, while the all-upper-case words all look more or less rectangular.

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 Use pictures

Pictures suggest the subject of the text. Skilled readers pick up clues from the whole context, not just the text. Using pictures as clues is not cheating and makes the page look a lot more interesting! Line drawings are the best for most documents - they're simple and clear, and they photocopy well.

Happy Valentine's Day

Use punctuation normally

 Use whole words

Write out abbreviations eg, ie = for example, like, like when

• etc = etcetera
• no. = number
• Apt, St, Ave, Blvd, and so on

There are exceptions to this rule. If the abbreviation is better known than the full word (e.g. fax)

Write out the meaning of acronyms in full at least the first time. Some readers prefer to have periods between each letter of the acronym, other prefer not to.

• Literacy Working Committee: LWC or L.W.C.
• Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy: MTML
• St. Christopher House Adult Literacy Program: SCHALP

You may also want to avoid isn't, they're, it's, haven't, won't, can't and other contractions, especially with new readers.

You can also use the "short names" for places that have long titles, like "St Chris" instead of "St Christopher House". It's your call which is going to make most sense to your readers.

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 Use the simplest words you can

• "therefore" = "and so"
• "all residents in this locality" = "everyone who lives here"
• "some assembly may be required" = "you have to put it together"
• "self-propelled vehicle of husbandry" = "tractor"

• "it was felt by all of us" with "we all felt"
• "we had gone" with "we went"
• "I will have bought" with "I will buy"

Do include phrases that crop up in your readers' everyday speech, like "dollars a pound", "time of day", "and so on". It helps a person guess what the next word will be.

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Keep each line short

Edit and re-edit

Ideally, allow a couple of days between when you first write something and when you sit down to edit it. In a perfect world, put it away and edit it again a week or more later. Usually you can't do that, so there are a few tricks you can use:

1. Look at each word, and read the text without it. If the text still means the same thing without the word, delete it.
2. Ask someone else to read it aloud, or onto a tape. Listen for unnecessary words.
3. Count the average number of words in a sentence. If it's very high, look for places where you can break up long sentences. This document averages about 10 word per sentence. Some word processors will also tell you the grade level of your document, or find the average word length. These can also be useful measurements.

Use fewer modifiers and descriptive words.

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