how to apply plain language in journalism

Plain language can be applied to written, audio, and video journalism by using wording, structure, and design appropriately.

Structure

• Keep your most important information near the beginning of your story. This is the information most people need to know. Order your information throughout the story in order of what is most important for people to know to least important for people to know, often called inverted pyramid.
• Keep your ideas short, usually one idea to sentence, and one or two sentences to paragraph.
• When speaking on audio or video, speak slowly and clearly.

Wording

• Consider your audience and their literacy level. In the U.S., 54 percent of adults fall below the 6th grade literacy level, according to the National Literacy Institute. Twenty percent fall below a 5th grade literacy level.
• Avoid jargon, or explain it where it must be used. If you are writing for a general audience, remember that the vast majority of your audience may not be experts in a particular field you may be covering.
• Avoid colloquialisms and slang, or explain them when necessary.

Design

• Have closed captioning, transcripts, and sign language (when possible) available for video and audio.
• Avoid overcrowding. Keep your visual design simple and easy to follow with sub-headers that give a reader context and places to cognitively land
• Keep your audio free of music or distracting background noise.
• Keep your video free of a lot of extra graphics or chyrons.

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