Readability and Legibility – The value of design in Public Relations

“Good prose is like a window pane”. George Orwell, 20th Century author and essayist

Over the past couple of months, I have been delving into the value of design in the public relations profession. We have looked at several design principles which can take your PR professional development to the next level, who knows maybe even through to executive level. This week, I want to discuss with you two design principles which I feel are of importance when producing any written form of PR; readability and legibility.

When analysing the readability of a piece of writing, you will consider the complexity of words and sentences which have a direct influence on prose. Let’s face it, as PR professionals we usually want to deliver messages to far-reaching publics. As Klare (1963) states, “readable writing is necessary and significant for the reader’s sake.” Level of readability has a direct role for a writer for mass media, as they must attempt to reach audiences of lower education levels to broaden the scope of readership (Klare, 1963).

Over time, several tools have been developed to assess readability level. Below is a case study example of a readability assessment using the SMOG formula.

SMOG Grading:

1.    Count 10 consecutive sentences near the beginning of the text to be assessed, 10 in the middle and 10 near the end.

2.    In the 30 selected sentences count every word of three or more syllables.

3.    Estimate the square root of the number of polysyllabic words counted.

4.    Add 3 to the approximate square root

(Mc Laughlin, 1969)

The case study focuses on a PRIA blog, “a crisis of meaningfulness”. You can access this blog by clicking on the link below.

http://www.pria.com.au/priablog/a-crisis-of-meaningfulness

After careful analysis of 30 sentences within “A Crisis of Meaningfulness”, it was determined that there are 82 words of three or more syllables. If we utilise the SMOG grading formula, we would round this to the nearest perfect square, so that we can establish the square root of the polysyllabic words. For this case study the square root of the polysyllabic words is nine (9). The SMOG grade of this text is 12, which determines that a reader would need a minimum of a senior school education to fully understand the text.

As professionals exploring the world of design, we are faced with modern desktop publishing, online publishing, and web-based graphic design tools such as Canva. Whilst these tools are valuable in one way or another, they add confusion with the increasing font and layout capabilities on offer (Holden, 2010). The legibility of the text we produce as professionals within the PR field is imperative if we want to succeed and be recognised.

The following points offer guidance concerning text legibility:

·         Size – optimal font size for print is 9- to 12-point type

·         Typeface – based on aesthetic appearance (sans or sans serif)

·         Contrast – contrast levels which exceed 70% optimise performance

·         Text Blocks – based on aesthetic appearance (justified or unjustified)

·         Spacing – proportionally or monospaced typeface is preferential

(Holden, 2010).

As I continue to consider my final publication on the value of design in public relations, I make note of the importance of consistency across all aspects of my publication when it comes to readability and legibility. As my publication is going to consist of three different publications (a blog post, a workshop registration, and workshop presentation) consistency across all three aspects will be key to ensuring my audience is engaged and finds engaging in my work pleasurable.

Current state of play on my final publication:

Reference:

Holden, K. 2010. Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated, Rockport Publishers. Available: ProQuest Ebook Central (accessed 5 January 2017).

Klare, G. R. 1963. The Measurement of Readability. ACM Journal of Computer Documentation, 24(3), August 2000, 107-121.

McLaughlin, G. H. 1969. SMOG Grading – a new readability formula. Journal of Reading, 639-646.

White, G. 2017. A Crisis of Meaningfulness, weblog. Available: http://www.pria.com.au/priablog/a-crisis-of-meaningfulness