• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Wylie's Writing Tips

Improve your communications with our training, consulting, and writing services

  • Home
  • Writing training
    • Topics
      • Content-writing classes
      • Email-writing classes
      • Persuasive-writing classes
      • PR-writing classes
      • Readability classes
      • Storytelling-writing classes
      • Web-writing classes
      • Writing-process classes
    • In-house writing workshops
    • Public writing workshops
      • Storytelling | July 11-15
      • PR writing | Aug. 15-19
      • Tight writing | Sept. 19-23
      • Email writing | Oct. 17-21
      • Writing process | Dec. 12-16
      • Past writing workshops
    • Association workshops
      • Case study: PRSA Puget Sound
      • Case study: IABC Detroit
      • Case study: IABC Lincoln
      • Case study: PRSA Alaska
    • Writing training clients
    • Trainer
  • Writing services
    • Ask Ann
    • Writing & editing
    • Writing coach
    • Writing guidelines
    • Writing training
    • Consulting clients
  • Writing tools
    • The Power Pack
    • Rev Up Readership: toolbox for writers
    • Art of Storytelling
    • Block Busters handbook
    • Clarify Complex Copy
    • Cut Through the Clutter manual
    • Get Good at Getting the Goods
    • Jargon: Start Making Sense
    • People Power
    • Think Like a Reader
    • Think Outside the Pyramid
  • Writing tips
    • Content writing
      • Relevant content writing
        • Relevant content writing resources
        • Relevant content writing quotes
      • Creative content writing
      • Structure for content
      • Readability for content
        • Resources on blog post length
        • Quotes on blog post length
      • Scannable web copy
      • Content writing resources
      • Content writing quotes
    • Email writing
      • Why email writing?
      • Subject lines
        • Resources on subject lines
        • Quotes on subject lines
      • Target your email
        • Quotes on targeted email
      • Feature story structure
      • Short, readable emails
        • Quotes on readable emails
      • Scannable emails
        • Quotes on how to write scannable email
      • Resources on email writing
      • Quotes on email writing
    • Microcontent
      • Skimming, scanning, reading
        • Resources on skimming, scanning, reading
        • Quotes on skimming, scanning, reading
      • Bulleted lists
        • Quotes on list writing
      • Callouts, pull quotes
        • Quotes on pull quotes and callouts
      • Captions, cutlines
        • Quotes on captions
      • Decks, summary blurbs
      • Headlines
        • Benefit headlines
        • Feature headlines
        • Web headlines
          • Quotes on web headlines
        • Quotes on headlines
      • Links, buttons
        • Quotes on links
      • Subheads
        • Quotes on how to do subheadings
      • Resources on display copy
      • Quotes on display copy
    • Persuasive writing
      • What’s in it for me?
        • Quotes on WIIFMs
      • Write about benefits
        • Quotes on verbs
        • Quotes on benefits
      • Write to, about You
        • Quotes on ‘you’ writing
      • Quotes about persuasive writing
    • Public relations writing
      • Why PR writing
      • Target readers with PR writing
        • Relevant releases quotes
      • Organize PR writing
        • Leads for releases
          • Press release first paragraph
          • Quotes on press release leads
        • Body for releases
      • Quotations
        • Quotes on writing a quotation
      • Readability for PR
        • Quotes on short press releases
      • Headlines, display copy for PR
        • Headlines for releases
        • Visuals for releases
      • Resources on press releases
      • Quotes on press releases
    • Readability
      • Why readability?
        • Information overload
          • Information overload quotes
        • Time spent reading
          • Quotes on time spent reading
      • Story length
        • Why short content
        • Measure A.R.T.
        • Tighten your story angle
        • Resources on writing short content
        • Quotes on writing short content
      • Paragraph length
        • Quotes on paragraph length
      • Writing with statistics
        • Quotes on writing with statistics
      • Sentence length
        • Activate the passive voice
          • Quotes on the passive voice
        • Resources on short sentences
        • Quotes on short sentences
        • Quotes about sentence length
      • Word length
        • Quotes on short words
        • Jargon
          • Quotes on jargon
          • Quotes on acronyms
        • Adjectives & adverbs
          • Quotes on modifiers
      • Readable
        • Resources on readability
        • Quotes on readability
      • Conversational copy
        • Quotes on conversational business writing
    • Storytelling and creative writing
      • Concrete details
        • Why concrete details?
        • Types of concrete detail
        • Quotes on concrete details
      • Description
        • Quotes on scent
      • Human interest
        • Quotes on human interest
      • Metaphor
        • Why use metaphor?
        • Complex copy
        • Creative comparisons
        • Simplify stats
        • Metaphor writing
        • Resources on metaphor
        • Quotes on metaphor
      • Storytelling
        • Why is storytelling important?
        • Find stories
        • Storytelling research
        • Elements of storytelling
        • Storytelling structure
        • Resources on storytelling
        • Quotes on storytelling
      • Wordplay
        • Alliteration
          • Resources on alliteration
        • Balance
        • Coin a word
          • Resources on coin a word
          • Quotes on coin a word
        • Quotes on the etymology of words
        • Rhyme
        • Rhythm
          • Quotes on using rhythm in writing
        • Twist of phrase
        • Quotes on how to use wordplay
      • Resources on creative copy
      • Quotes on creative copy
      • Quotes on boring copy
    • Type of articles
      • Case studies
      • Tipsheets
      • List-writing tips
    • Web writing
      • Why writing for the web?
        • Quotes on why writing for the web
      • Above the fold
        • Quotes on above-the-fold content
      • Tight web copy
        • Quotes on tight web copy
      • Scannable web copy
        • Quotes on scannable web copy
      • SEO for writers
        • Quotes on SEO
        • Quotes on SEO for releases
      • Quotes on crafting good web writing
      • Writing for mobile quotes
    • Writing
    • Writing process
      • Creativity step by step
        • Creative process
          • Quotes on the 5-step creative process
          • Quotes on foraging
          • Quotes on analyzing information
          • Quotes on incubation
          • Quotes on breaking through
          • Quotes on knuckling down
        • Quotes on creativity
        • Quotes from naysayers
        • Creative story ideas
        • Communicating with comics
      • Prewriting
        • Research blog posts
          • Research quotes
        • Tighten angle
          • Quotes on finding your focus
        • Quotes on prewriting
      • Freewriting
        • Quotes on freewriting
      • Writing difficulty quotes
      • Writer’s block quotes
      • Writing process quotes
    • Writing structure
      • Feature story structure
        • Why features structure?
          • Why feature structure?
        • Feature structure examples
        • Feature leads
        • Nut graph
          • Quotes on nut graph
        • Background section
          • Quotes on the background section
        • Body
          • Quotes on the body
        • Conclusion
          • Quotes on how to write good endings
        • Transitions
          • Quotes on transitions
      • Other story structures
      • Quotes on story structure
  • Writing newsletter
    • Current issue
    • What others say
    • Archives
  • Blog
  • Calendar
  • Why us?
    • About the trainer
    • Contact Ann

Benchmark readability against the BBC

How does your clarity stack up?

The BBC covers the most serious news known to man — West Bank stabbings, friendly fire air strikes, Justin Bieber’s bad behavior — and does so in an average of 4.7-character words.

Benchmark your readability
News for you The BBC makes the most serious news easy to understand with highly readable copy. Does your organization do the same? Image by Poster Boy

How does your copy’s readability compare to that of the world’s largest broadcast organization?

Benchmark readability

One way to find out is to benchmark readability statistics. That’s a great way to convince bosses, clients and reviewers that extremely readable copy makes sense, even for serious messages.

We used Microsoft Word’s Readability Statistics to measure how the BBC’s readability stacks up. We reviewed every story (23, including the top 10 most read) on the BBC.com home page on July 27.

Here’s what we found out … and how you can improve readability of your own pieces.

Is your message as readable as the BBC’s?

Related stories

What would Hemingway do?

What would Hemingway do? Model the master of clear writing with this new app

10 online readability calculators

10 online readability calculators: Test your clarity with these cool (free!) tools

“Write for the expert, but write so the non-expert can understand.”
— Bernard Kilgore, celebrated Wall Street Journal editor

Cut Through the Clutter

Make every piece you write easier to read & understand

Is your copy easy to read? According to communication experts, that’s one of the two key questions people ask to determine whether to read a piece — or toss it.

Catch Your Readers
Numbers game Learn “the numbers” — proven-in-the-lab targets for paragraph, sentence and word length — you need to measurably improve your copy’s readability. Image by Kolleen Gladden

Fortunately, academics have tested and quantified what makes copy easy to read. Unfortunately, that research virtually never makes it out of the ivory tower and into the hands of writers who could actually apply it.

But you’ll leave Catch Your Readers — our two-day Writing That Sells master class on Nov. 16-17 in Kansas City — with “the numbers” you need to measurably improve your copy’s readability.

Specifically, you’ll learn how to:

  • Make every piece you write easier to read and understand with our 6-step system
  • Get proven-in-the-lab targets for readable paragraph, sentence and word lengths.
  • Measure, monitor and manage readability with a cool — free! — tool.
  • Increase reading by hitting one key on your keyboard more often.
  • Use the fastest, most effective approach for condensing your message dramatically.

This is our final Catch Your Readers workshop for 2017. Don’t miss out. Register now.

Save $100 — grab one of our early bird tickets by Aug. 30.

Register now

“I learned more about writing today than in four years of college and the decades since.”
— Paul Nonnenmacher, senior public relations strategist, Adams & Knight

Polish your skills at these Master Classes

Learn to Master the Art of the Storyteller, Catch Your Readers, Get Clicked, Cut Through the Clutter and more

Register for Cut Through the Clutter - Ann Wylie’s concise-writing workshop in San Francisco on Aug, 17-18, 2017

San Francisco | Aug. 17-18

Register for Master the Art of the Storyteller in New York: Ann Wylie’s creative-writing workshop in New York on Sept. 25-26, 2017

New York | Sept. 25-26

Register for Catch Your Readers in Kansas City: Ann Wylie’s persuasive-writing workshop in Kansas City on Nov. 16-17, 2017

Kansas City | Nov. 16-17

Register for Write For The Web and Mobile: Ann Wylie’s online-writing workshop in Miami on Dec. 11-12, 2017

Miami | Dec. 11-12

Rather bring Ann in to train your whole team?

Invite Ann

Catch Ann on the road

Save when you book a workshop while I’m in your neighborhood

Ask about piggybacking on my upcoming engagements in:

  • Atlanta: Sept. 11-12
  • Boston: Oct. 9
  • Chicago: Nov. 13
  • Kansas City: Nov. 16-17
  • Memphis: Nov. 2
  • Miami: Dec. 11-12
  • New York: Sept. 25-26
  • Dallas, TX: Oct. 16-20
  • Roseville, CA: Oct. 24
  • San Francisco: Aug. 17-18

Keep up with my calendar.

Please share this issue …

… with two of your colleagues by directing them to our current issue. Better yet, invite them to subscribe to Wylie’s Writing Tips. They’ll thank you — and so will I!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • More
  • Pocket
  • Email
  • Print

Primary Sidebar

June 23, 2022

Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop on July 11-15

Save upto $100 with our group discounts.

Register for Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop on July 11-15
  • What goes into a press release boilerplate?What goes into a press release boilerplate? Boil your company down with boilerplates
  • How to write funny contentHow to write funny content: Try self-deprecating humor
  • People understand 48% less on mobilePeople understand 48% less on mobile: How can you overcome the obstacles of reading on smartphones?
Archives

Wylie Communications, Inc. logo
    Training
  • In-house writing workshops
  • Public writing workshops
  • Association workshops
    Services
  • Writing guidelines
  • Ask Ann
  • Editing and rewriting
    Tools
  • Learning tools
  • RevvingUpReadership.com
  • Free writing tips
Subscribe to our ezine
Upcoming Workshops

Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop on July 11-15

NOT Your Father’s PR Writing - Ann Wylie's PR-writing workshop on Aug. 15-19

Rev Up Readability - Ann Wylie's tight-writing workshop on Sept. 19-23

Think Inside the Inbox - Ann Wylie's email-writing workshop on Oct. 17-21

© Copyright 2022 · Ann Wylie · All Rights Reserved
May not be duplicated and shared without authors permission. Contact us