Hi there I am wondering what education level we should be writing at when writing articles. I was told once before that most people read around a grade five level, and it is would be unwise to do any long-term writing (brochures, handouts, articles, etc) with university-oriented words. What are your thoughts?
Most people read at a 8th or 9th grade level and so writing content for the web should fall into that level in most cases. People don't want to be talked at or down to; they want to be talked to. Hope this helps you. Rhonda
I agree with Rhonda that 8th or 9th grade level is best. It's more conversational when you write at that level.
You don't rally need to be a journalist grade or some high tech degree holder to be good writer... All you need to know is how to right a converting article without any grammatical errors and contextual error and right to the point on what you're talking about.. That shouldn't be that hard!!
You should write as simple as you can, so even a child can understand you. Don't write difficult words or university-level like you say because your prospects/customers may not understand that and confuses them. By writing simple you won't bother anyone but will only help everyone understand you better. With writing articles objective is to get them to read article and understand it. Those who have high degree of school like doctors, lawyers etc aren't bothered by simple style of writing
1. It depends on what you are selling. 2. It depends on who you are selling it to. Think about how you speak to other adults. Listen to how your client speaks to you. Rather than worry about a score, focus on matching your client's needs.
I'm in advertising so we attempt to reach a vast cross section of society. John Q. Public responds to everyday language. So,keep it interesting and informative,but remember generally speaking, you are not trying to reach rocket scientists.
Most newswriting is put together at a 5th grade level. Online copy hits about the 8th. As it was stated before - it depends entirely upon your audience. If your client says "I want my product to be accessible by everyone" then you should find a new client. "Everyone will buy this" is a bad business model.
Your level of writing should go well with the type of content you want to publish. The type of business also matters when it comes to decide on the level of writing.
Article writing would just need casual simple language that anyone would understand. Just enough to entertain and get the message accross
It depends. What are the articles about? What type of readers would be interested in them? General articles should be aimed at 8th-10th grade levels. (MS Word has a feature to check article reading levels built in.) Other types of articles may require different reading levels to be used. I don't think there is an easy catch-all answer for this.
Knowing your audience is very important. Painting a story is a very effective writing style but to each their own. I've heard somewhere all the Harry Potter books were at around a 5th or 6th grade reading level yet they were massively popular because of how well the fantasy world was portrayed by the writer. When writing for business this 'paint a story' about the news is effective too.
If you write simply, intelligently and honestly, you don't really have to worry about what "grade level you're writing at".