Plain language: writing members can understand at a glance

Membergate Support - November 27, 2024

Members rarely complain that your writing is too clear. They do, quietly, give up on writing that makes them work too hard. A lesson full of long sentences, abstract nouns and unexplained terms gets skimmed, misunderstood or saved for later and never read. The member does not think “this is badly written.” They think “this is hard,” and sometimes “maybe I am not smart enough for this.”

Plain language is writing that your intended reader can find, understand and use the first time they read it. It is not dumbing down. Experts appreciate it as much as beginners, because it saves them time. For a membership, where every piece of content is part of what members pay for, clear writing is one of the cheapest ways to make that content more valuable.

Start with the reader and the point

Most unclear writing starts before the first sentence, when the writer has not decided who they are writing for or what they want to say. Before you write, answer two questions:

Who is reading? What do they already know, and what situation are they in when they read this?
What is the one thing they need to know or do? If you cannot say it in a sentence, you are not ready to write yet.

Then put that one thing near the top. Members should not have to read three paragraphs of background to find out what the piece is about.

Sentences that do one job

Long sentences are the most common barrier to understanding. They force the reader to hold several ideas in their head at once. As a rough guide, keep most sentences short enough to read aloud in one breath, and give each sentence one main idea.

A few habits make sentences clearer:

Put the subject and verb early. “You can cancel a session” is easier than “Cancellation of a session by the client is possible.”
Prefer active voice. “We will refund you” rather than “A refund will be issued.” Active voice also makes it clear who does what.
Turn nouns back into verbs. “Make a decision” becomes “decide.” “Carry out an assessment” becomes “assess.”
Break up lists buried in sentences. If a sentence contains four or more items, use a bulleted list instead.

Everyday words over impressive ones

Choose the word your reader would use in conversation. Formal words slow reading down without adding meaning. Some common swaps:

utilize: use
commence: start
in order to: to
prior to: before
at this point in time: now
facilitate: help
a majority of: most
in the event that: if

Specialist terms are a different matter. Your members may need to learn the vocabulary of your field, and avoiding it entirely can leave them unprepared. The rule is to explain a term the first time you use it, in plain words, and then use it consistently. If you keep a word list in a simple style guide for your membership content, add a plain-language definition beside each term.

A before-and-after

Imagine a hypothetical membership for independent tutors, run by Odette. Here is a paragraph from a lesson on session policies, before and after a plain-language rewrite:

Before: In the event that a client should fail to provide adequate notice prior to the cancellation of a scheduled session, it is advisable for the tutor to have established, in advance, a clearly communicated policy regarding the applicability of fees, in order to facilitate a consistent approach and minimize the potential for disputes.

After: Decide your late-cancellation policy before you need it. Tell every new client what it is. For example: “If you cancel with less than 24 hours' notice, you pay for the session.” When everyone knows the rule in advance, you can apply it the same way every time, and arguments are less likely.

The rewrite uses shorter sentences, everyday words and a concrete example. It is also more useful: a tutor can act on it immediately.

Let layout do some of the work

Plain language is not only about words. How text looks on the page affects how easily it is understood:

Short paragraphs, usually three or four sentences.
Headings that tell readers what each section says.
Numbered lists for steps and bulleted lists for options.
Bold for the few words that matter most, not whole sentences.
Examples placed right after the idea they illustrate.

These choices matter especially for members who read on phones, who read in a second language or who find reading effortful for any reason. Good layout also helps older readers; designing for older audiences has more on that.

Test your writing on real readers

You cannot fully judge the clarity of your own writing, because you already know what you meant. A few simple tests help:

Read it aloud. Wherever you run out of breath or stumble, the sentence is too long or too tangled.
The explain-it-back test. Ask a member or friend to read a piece and tell you in their own words what it says. Where their version differs from yours, the writing needs work.
The five-second test. Show someone the top of the page for five seconds. Can they tell you what it is about?
Search for your usual suspects. Look for the formal words and phrases you tend to use, and replace them.

Plain language checks fit naturally into a regular self-editing routine; editing your own content: a practical checklist shows where they belong.

Your next steps

Choose one piece members use often, such as a start-here page or a popular lesson.
Write one sentence stating who it is for and what they need to know, and move that to the top.
Split any sentence you cannot read aloud in one breath.
Replace formal words with everyday ones, and explain each specialist term once.
Add headings, lists and an example where the text is dense.
Ask one member to explain it back to you, and fix whatever they misread.

Clear writing respects your members' time and intelligence. It lets them spend their energy on using what you teach, not decoding it.