3. For question #2, explain how your new post successfully addresses the three main objectives of Plain English writing as discussed in class. Provide a detailed breakdown of each objective. (9 Marks)
The three main objectives of plain English writing:
- Find what they need
- Understand it
- Use it to fulfill their purpose
Finding what my consumers need is the first objective of Plain English writing. This allows me to take into consideration the exact information my consumers would be looking for. This is where I had to take the time to put myself in my consumer’s shoes and really think about what they would want from my brand and my product. To initially find the key points of what they needed, I asked myself “If I was a consumer on the other end of this, what would be the quickest way to real me in and tell me what I need to know in the quickest way possible?”
- Focus on what the USP of your product is: It not only tracks your menstrual cycle but it tells you and/ or others can do for you in each phase to feel your best.
- Tell them quickly what the TrackHER Calendar is: a period tracker that explains the phases and symptoms you’ll experience during each phase and how to feel your best.
- Tell them how it works: Pair it with a digital period tracker and cross off the days of your menstrual cycle when you’re in each phase.
- Tell them why they need it: Using a TrackHER Calendar to track their menstrual cycle will provide them with deep insight into their mental, physical, and emotional health and things will begin making a lot more sense.
In order to comply with plain English writing, what they needed, in this case, is information about what the TrackHER Calendar is. I began shortly by introducing the menstrual cycle to my audience and highlighting the lack of education regarding menstrual cycles not only in men but in women as well. This was used as a leeway to begin speaking on my product and accentuate the issue that my product solves for them. This way, my consumers would realize why they need my product and what my product can do for them.
I also ensured to include these key factors as close to the top of my content as possible. I highlighted in the 4th and 5th sentences, what my audience needed to know about my product: that the TrackHER Calendar was made to teach women AND men about the menstrual cycle and that it can help in their relationships, in their day-to-day lives and it can help those who exercise regularly and prioritize fitness. This answers the “what” in what my audience needs to know. The goal is that the information I have included at the top of my content will intrigue my audience enough to want to know more information about how my product does this and get them to continue reading.
In plain English writing, you are meant to save the time of the viewer and really consider the key pieces of information that they need to know. Because I understand that my product is something brand new to the market and my target audience has no idea who I am, what TrackHER is and why they should care about it, listed above in the bullet points is a summary of the key pieces of information I needed to include to ensure I fulfilled all three objectives of plain English writing. I asked myself questions like “What is my audience’s problem?” “How does my product solve it?” “What do they need to know about my product?”
With that, I needed to clearly outline the answers to the questions above in a short and concise way that tells my audience what they need to know as quickly as I can tell them. So, after immediately telling my audience what the TrackHER Calendar does for them, I went on to explain the three different types of calendars and how it does this. I quickly summarized the most important information describing the difference between each calendar and its purpose. With no time wasted in between, I quickly transitioned over to how the TrackHER calendar needs to be paired with a digital period tracker to be accurate, effective and deliver the best results. This will help my audience further understand what the TrackHER Calendar is and form an overall picture of The TrackHER Calendars for my customers to fully understand my product and how it benefits them.
Also, to ensure they understand the information as easily as possible, I ensured to write in simple terms, comparable to something a 6th grader would understand. I laid out the information in an organized manner that flows from one topic of discussion to the next. To further ensure it’s easy for them to find more information regarding the TrackHER Calendars and/ or what I am discussing in general (the menstrual cycle), I clearly indicated where they could find more information if they were intrigued enough to want to find out more. I included multiple CTA’S all leading the viewer straight to my website in a clear and obvious manner. To list a few: “you can click here to visit The TrackHER Calendar website,” and “You can visit The TrackHER website to learn why you should track your menstrual cycle.”
Lastly, to ensure I’ve clearly outlined what my audience needs, why they need it, and what they need to know, I reiterated why they need the TrackHER Calendars and where they can go from here to find their next steps and obtain more detail regarding their menstrual cycles or my products. The information that was delivered, in the format it was delivered, alongside the CTA’s, and describing what my product is and why they need it, all of these tools worked together to ensure what my audience finds will meet their needs.
- Describe one specific technique you used to improve readability in your revised version and explain why it is effective. (4 Marks)
The specific technique applied to improve the readability of my article is the F-Pattern. As we all know and as discussed in class, in a world full of short-form content and quick satisfaction, people don’t enjoy reading, especially on online platforms when it’s delivered in long paragraphs and blocks of text. So, to ensure, the layout of the information does not get in the way of the actual information that needs to be delivered, I ensured to follow the F pattern. If done correctly, the F pattern technique is effective because it is the natural, automatic way web readers scan content. Multiple elements (listed below) work together throughout my content to ensure I am following the F Pattern.
The F pattern includes trying to keep the most important information at the beginning of your sentences. beginning sentences with the most important words, including keywords to help users find my content, keeping “paragraphs” short, using bullet points and sub headers to separate the content and instead of paragraphs being 3-5 sentences, they are 3-5 lines.
I applied many of these tactics throughout my website to ensure my writing aligned with the F pattern. For example, I started off my content by using one of my main keywords, “the menstrual cycle”. This immediately lets readers know what my content is about and it is an important keyword relating to the content that is being delivered so it can help users better find my content in search queries. To further apply the F pattern, I tried to keep the most important information at the top of the introduction post while still creating room for fluidity all throughout.
I ensured my content was scannable, by separating paragraphs every 1-3 sentences. This prevents my readers from seeing blocks of text and completely losing interest. I included a bulleted list while listing my 3 products, also making it more appealing to my audience and I tried to keep the information informative instead of catchy. I spoke directly to my audience where possible when referring to the menstrual cycle, establishing a sense of personalization.
Including all of the elements listed above throughout my writing ensures I am following the F pattern, making it effective for readers viewing my content. Implementing the F pattern for my content ensures my content is easily scannable for web readers and is guaranteed to improve readability.
b. What was the most challenging aspect of applying the F-Pattern and Plain English writing principles? How did you overcome it? (5 Marks)
I found the most difficult aspect of applying the F pattern to be including the most important information at the beginning of the sentence and ensuring “paragraphs” are no more than 3-5 lines.
With the F pattern, it is important that you ensure sentences are no longer than 3-5 lines as this is what has a large impact on the readability factor and helps avoid losing the readers interest. You must break up your paragraphs into shorter sentences that are spaced out all throughout, so it is challenging to include a key word and/ or the most important information at the beginning of the sentence if it doesn’t comply with fluidity and readability. If I were to focus on this aspect, my content might come across as non-fluid and almost “chunky” and separated – as if I were to just input random pieces of information everywhere.
To overcome this challenge, I simply tried my best. You are not always going to be able to implicate every aspect of the F pattern throughout your content, there are some factors you need to focus more on and some factors you need to focus on less. So, I prioritized what was more important and what wasn’t. Including keywords at the beginning of the sentences does help boost your content in search queries but fluidity overrules this to keep the reader interested and automatically make them continue reading. It doesn’t matter if you put the most important information at the beginning of your content if audience members lose focus, lose interest, and get confused while reading it. So, instead of focusing on inputting the key information at the beginning, I would ensure the key information is strategically placed throughout the content, with a few buffer words in between, ensuring the readers naturally flow from one sentence to the next. This way, they will still obtain the important information, in the proper context, and they will be more interested in reading my content as it naturally flows.
I found the most challenging aspects of Plain English writing to be minimizing all of the content and ensuring I’ve provided all of the necessary information within a shorter time period than usual. With our projects so far, I am quite used to including as much information as possible and to stay on brand with my brand personality, a large way I will connect with my consumers is through storytelling and shared experiences – making myself seem less like a brand and more like a person, or better yet, more like a woman. The shared experiences and storytelling is also a tactic I will use to better sell my product. So, having to almost completely remove the emotion and storytelling to quickly provide my audience with what they needed to know in a timely fashion was quite challenging.
To overcome this, I thought about the 3 main objectives of Plain English writing.
- Find what they need
- Understand it
- Use it to fulfill their purpose
While thinking about the three objectives, “find what they NEED” does not imply they need to know about the backstory and past experiences I’ve been through – at least not for this specific introductory post. I asked myself questions like, “what is my audience’s problem?” “How does my product solve it?” “What do they need to know about my product?” This made it easier to summarize my content and focus on on providing the most important information about the product. I included a few relatable parts to establish a sense of connection and relatable-ness to highlight why they needed the product. For example, “Tracking my cycle changed my life,” this personal piece of content is there to intrigue and influence readers to want to know why and how tracking my cycle changed my life. But to keep it clear and concise for this introductory post, they didn’t need to know why it changed my life, just that it did. Hopefully, this will ignite a sense of curiosity in my readers to think oh my, if it changed her life, maybe it will change mine! By strategically implicating small personal pieces of information and prioritizing the larger key pieces of information (thinking about what my audience NEEDS to know) regarding my product, I overcame the challenge of overfilling my content with personal storytelling and keeping it clear, concise, and straight to the point.