Well-designed materials provide information that is easy for audience members to understand and to relate to their own interests and needs. Research tells us that to communicate effectively with a general audience in the U.S., we need to write at a 6th-8th grade reading level.

1992

The National Adult Literacy Survey, National Center for Education Statistics

Nearly 50% of the Americans surveyed cannot read well enough to find a single piece of information in a short publication, nor can they make low level inferences based on what they read

1993

The National Adult Literacy Survey, Educational Testing Service

75% of adult Americans with chronic health conditions scored in the lowest two literacy levels assessed

1994

Pediatrics, 3-94

The average reading level of American parents of young children is 7th or 8th grade, but 80% of pediatric materials for parents are written at the 10th grade level or above

1995

Emory University/UCLA study, reported in JAMA, 12-95

41.6% of American patients could not comprehend directions for taking medication on an empty stomach

26% were unable to understand information regarding when their next appointment was scheduled

50.5% could not understand a standard informed consent form

1996
"Physical Assessment: The Pharmacist and the Self-medicating Patient," Drug Newsletter

About 20% of the US population are functionally illiterate; for some subsets of our population, that rises to 40%.

1999

Education levels in the U.S.

About one in every four Americans (25%) is a high school dropout

About half (45%) have gone to college for some period of time, but fewer than one in six (15%) have a college degree

Strategies in materials targeted to the general public

Examples

 Keep sentences short. Sentence length is the single greatest factor affecting comprehension.

 Grade level 5-8: Families often find it hard to follow treatment recommendations. They are short of time. They may also doubt their skills.

 Grade level >12.0: Adhering to treatment recommendations is often fraught with difficulties, for families have a multitude of scheduling commitments, and may also be highly insecure about their abilities.

 Avoid jargon.

 New Rules of Healthcare Marketing (1998) recommends:

 For -- Use

morbidity -- sickness

mortality -- death

outcomes data -- our experience shows

continuum of care -- our many resources

customer-centered care -- keeping the focus on the customer

healthcare system partnership -- program

Avoid: gatekeeper, access, paradigm

Design your message around the needs and experiences of your audience.

Do your research before you begin brainstorming about your materials

Use terminology that is familiar to your audience.

Key considerations: Gender, age, education, emotional status, economic status, literacy

Write to inform rather than impress.

Hyperfloridity is an egregious offender in the obfuscation of organizational communication. Right?

Use the active voice.

Avoid the passive voice.

Use active voice, so that the subject of the sentence acts:

Leigh opened the book.

FAS caused Tony's learning disability. His parents contacted UHS to discuss assistive technology.

Avoid passive voice, with the subject of the sentence being acted upon:

The book was opened by Leigh.

Tony's learning disability was caused by FAS. UHS was contacted by his parents; a discussion of assistive technology was desired.

Use 1st or 2nd person:

First person: I, we (speaker)

2nd person: you (spoken to)

Avoid:

3rd person: he, she, it , they (spoken of)

Use:

1st: At UHS, we know that staff members are caring as well as highly skilled.

2nd: At UHS, you know that staff members are caring as well as highly skilled.

Avoid:

3rd: At UHS, one knows that staff members are caring as well as highly skilled.

Use simple declarative sentences most frequently, while varying sentence structure as needed to maintain interest of reader.

Simple declarative = subject verb object

/ / /

The team membersmet the parents.

Express statements in positive form.

Yes: More than 50% of the patients reported a satisfactory outcome.

No: Less than 50% of the patients were not happy with the outcomes.

Use carefully chosen verbs; avoid overuse of modifiers.

Yes: The communication device helped this child learn.

[F-K reading level: 6.7]

No: The utilization of a high-tech communication device was decidedly beneficial to the learning process for this child.

[F-K reading level: >12]