Simpler writing = more readers

William Dubay of Impact Information has shared this in a review of readability research:

"Macfadden Publications, Inc. A Study of What Makes it Hard or Easy to Read. New York: Macfadden Publications, Inc., 1947. This report was for businessmen writing advertisements for mass audiences. The study analyzed more than 1000 ads of more than one-third page or larger over a period of three years. The study found that the three most-read ads had a 1943 Flesch rating of 1.12-- comfortable reading for about 80% of the population. The three least- read had a rating of 3.36--comfortable reading for less than 35%."

This hit home with me(mm)because I had just read an issue of Inside Counsel, a magazine directed to lawyers working in the legal departments inside business. I was struck by the number of full-page ads touting the services of outside-counsel which were, wholly or in part, unreadable.

This was startling because an advertisement should be the simplest, catchiest writing ever conceived by a law firm -- in fact their marketers or designers should be involved.

Even inside counsel are busy and do not have time nor the inclination to read long blocks of text that are a distraction from the content of the magazine to begin with.