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UX Writers: what grade level are you writing at?
What grade level should you be writing at? How do you determine your copy’s grade level?
![A girl with glasses sits and reads on a small retaining wall with lots of plants behind her.](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*JH9WuY2eDDTYuNwIvrQhDQ.jpeg)
In my last article, I detailed the unfortunate fact of falling literacy rates. Reading comprehension is down, and this is a problem that shouldn’t just be the concern of teachers, parents, and students. The U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy has found that 43% of the U.S. population has low literacy.
Knowing what grade level you are writing at is more important than ever. UX professionals cannot assume that their audience will understand their copy.
User experience writers are encouraged to write in “plain English” or with “plain language.” What does that actually mean?
Typically, this advice is meant to emphasize the importance of accessibility: you should write in a way that is easy to understand so that all users can access and comprehend your copy. Those users include —
- children and adults
- native and non-native speakers
- neurotypical and neurodivergent readers
- focused and distracted readers
Of course, the copy in question’s audience will differ depending on the content. Highly…