Some Facts About Reading

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Some Facts About Reading

• Americans average reading level 8th-9th grade.
• 1 in 5 people read at 5th grade or below.
• Almost 2 in 5 older (65) Americans and inner
  city minorities read at 5th grade level or
  below.
• Roughly 1/2 of students learn to read with
  relative ease.
• As many as 1 in 5 students will manifest a
  significant reading disability.
• Today, 10 million students are classified as poor
  readers.
• 88 of students who are poor readers at the end
  of 1st grade will display similar difficulties at
  the end of 4th grade.
• 
  
  Source www.med.utah.edu

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Still more facts about reading.

• In 1998, only 41 of 12th graders read at a
  proficient or advanced level. (Proficient is
  defined as mastery of challenging subject matter
  for grade level.)
• The rest read at a basic level or below. (Basic
  is defined as partial mastery of skills at grade
  level.)
• The percentage of children who read well has not
  improved substantially in more than 25 years.
• Source www.ed.gov.pubs

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One last fact about reading

• Most people read at about a 65 comprehension
  level.
• Source www.roadforreading.org

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So whats the point?

• Many people do not read willingly or well, so
  its important to make the task of reading as
  easy as possible.

5
The Web further complicates reading.

• Factors such as font size and screen resolution
  slow reading by about 25.
• Poor design decisions, such as background images
  or font color can make reading on the Web more
  fatiguing. http//www.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr
  /511/projects/breault/template.htm
• Features such as unnecessary animations can
  interfere with reading.

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The First Law of Writing for the Web

• If you dont write for the reader,
• the reader wont read.

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The Second Law of Writing for the Web

• Text and graphics must work together so that the
  readers task is simplified.

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Why do people go to the Web?

• Overwhelmingly, people go to the Web
• to find useful information
• as quickly as possible.
• Source
  www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html

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How people read on the Web

• They dont actually read, they scan (glance from
  point to point, often quickly searching for a
  particular item). Only 16 read word by word 79
  scan.
• Readability studies have shown that a sample Web
  site scored 47higher in measured usability when
  it was scannable.

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The difference between reading and scanning

• Reading
• Progression is word by word across the page and
  down.
• Meaning is gathered from the syntax (the way
  words are put together to form phrases or
  clauses) and the ongoing process of reading each
  word.
• Key information is not visually called out.

• Scanning
• Progression is rapid and not in order around the
  page as user looks for specific facts or key
  words and phrases.
• Meaning clusters around key words and phrases as
  the user finds them. There may not be an ongoing
  process of good meaning-making.
• Key information is visually called out.

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• Readable text. With the exception of the
  paragraph breaks, nothing appears in the text
  that is likely to distract the eye from its
  left-to-right, top-to-bottom progress.
• If you wanted to make this text scannable, how
  would you do it?

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• Scannable text.
• Oversized headings alert the reader to the
  topic of each paragraph.

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• Scannable text.
• Colored headings and bullets distract the
  eye from its left-to-right, top-to-bottom
  progress and visually organize the material.
• Numbers imply hierarchy.
• Bullets No order of
• importance implied.

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• Scannable text.
• The newspaper page structure is an
  excellent aid to scanning.

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ScanningScannable text calls attention to key
information through the use of

• Text chunking
• Headings
• Bold text
• Bulleted/numbered lists
• Captions

• Large type
• Highlighted text
• Graphics
• Topic Sentences
• Tables of Contents

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When highlighting, keep in mind

• Dont over highlight--it loses its effectiveness.
• Dont highlight overly long phrases. A scanning
  eye can only pick up 2-3 words at a glance.

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With lists, keep in mind

• Lists slow down the scanning eye and draw
  attention to important points.
• Numbering a list suggests order of importance.
• Limit the number of items in a list to no more
  than 9. Readers can hold 5-9 items in their minds
  at one time.
• Dont require users to click through level after
  level of lists. Below the 2nd level, information
  should be available.
• Alphabetizing a list helps a reader find the
  topic more easily.

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With headlines, keep in mind

• Headlines should be straightforward, not cryptic,
  funny, or cute.
• Headlines that summarize the copy significantly
  help readers scan.

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Exercise One

• Edit the sample of readable text to make it
  more scannable.

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What else do readers want?

• Concise copy. Users dont like long, scrolling
  pages they prefer short, to-the-point text. Less
  copy means less information to process, easing
  their cognitive load.
• Source www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.ht
  ml

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What does concise mean?

• Free from elaboration and superfluous detail.
• Concise is relative to audience however, keep
  in mind that Web users dislike scrolling on
  initial pages in a site. They expect denser
  information deeper in the sites structure.

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Failure of Leadership Certain principles and
freedoms are guaranteed by our Constitution. Yet,
without enforcement, the Constitution is just a
piece of paper. Where does one turn if national
leaders fail to uphold these fundamental rights?
President Roosevelt ignored reports from Naval
Intelligence, the FBI and other official sources
that there was no need for either mass removal or
incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry.
According to then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, "
... the decision to evacuate was ... based
primarily on public and political pressures
rather than factual data."1 Perhaps Roosevelt
was influenced by anti-Japanese sentiments or
misled by key advisors. Perhaps it was because
there was no strong opposition to the
incarceration on the West Coast. In any case,
President Roosevelt encountered little resistance
when he chose to violate the civil rights of a
small, easily identifiable and politically
powerless minority group rather than go against
the rising tide of hostility. The U.S. Supreme
Court upheld Roosevelt's decision. In sharp
contrast to the mainland, the military leadership
in Hawaii discouraged public hysteria and there
was no mass incarceration on the islands. 1943
U.S. War Relocation Authority newsreel titled
"Japanese Relocation."

• Users will read longer copy however, they want
  to make the choice to do so. You can help them
  choose to read by using anchor pages. On a page
  containing a lot of copy, put a list of linked
  headings at the top of the page that will jump
  the reader to places lower on the page. This
  allows the reader to scan the list to see if the
  page contains relevant material they want to read.

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Inverted pyramidBegin with the conclusion,
follow with supporting information, end with
detailed background.

• Headline states the conclusion
• Sub-head provides supporting info
• Summary of story adds more detail

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Can copy be too brief?

• You still need to satisfy a readers
  informational needs and give what you promised.
• Concise does not always require cutting. Use
  short paragraphs (7 lines or less), narrower
  columns (no more than 5 inches), and line lengths
  of 15 words or less. Frequent subheads help also.

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Exercise Two

• Rewrite the copy to make it more concise.

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Readers also want objectivity.

• Users dont like anything that seems like
  marketing fluff or overly hyped language.
• If text seems too over-the-top, readers will
  begin to call its validity into question. This
  creates a distraction that increases their
  cognitive load.

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How to add objectivity.

• Include links to other sites that contain
  supporting information.
• Create a page design that reflects the content
  and is sophisticated without being slick.
• Avoid using too many adjectives and adverbs to
  describe ideas. They make sentences too wordy and
  feel more like a sell job than serious
  information.
• Exclude mission statements, slogans and other
  jargon laden language.

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Exercise Three

• Rewrite the copy to make it more objective.

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Conversational copy

• Readers want conversational or informal copy.
  They can read it faster, thereby reducing their
  cognitive load.
• Sounds like normal speech patterns--not too
  elementary, not too rhetorical. Read your copy
  out loud to test its naturalness.

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Exercise Four

• Rewrite the copy to make it more conversational.

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People want to know where they are and where they
can go.

• Copy can aid navigation.
• Embedded links (links that occur in the midst of
  a block of text) should be the primary links you
  want readers to see. They will use them as a
  guide for scanning, so only the most important
  should be embedded--the rest can go to a list at
  the end of the copy.

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Readers want context

• Users can enter a site at any page, so each page
  should stand alone, without reference to a
  previous page.
• Readers from anywhere in the world can access
  your site. Dont assume they know things that you
  may think are obvious--like the fact that Olympia
  is in Washington, etc. Explain or provide links
  to background information you think they may
  need.
• Caption photos and illustrations.
• Avoid jargon unless you can be sure your audience
  is fluent in it.
• Use humor judiciously--its very subjective.
• Users should be able to immediately see how the
  page relates to a query if they came there
  through a search engine. Highlight key words,
  start the page with a summary, and use other
  techniques to aid scanning.

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Last words

• Combining words and images doubles the chance
  people will understand your message.
• Presenting the same information in a variety of
  ways will increase the number of people you will
  reach.
• People will try to fit the information you
  present into existing mental structures, so
  relate ideas and information to what people may
  already be familiar with. Make a personal
  connection to your audience.