Plain Language School Newsletter: Writing for Low-Literacy Families

A significant percentage of adults in the United States read below a 6th grade level. That statistic includes many parents of school-age children. Add families who are reading English as a second or third language, and the actual reading access level of your newsletter audience is likely much lower than the level at which it is written.

Plain language writing is not about writing down to families. It is about writing clearly to everyone. Here is how to do it.

Write Short Sentences

This is the single most effective plain language technique. A sentence with 10 words is easier to read than a sentence with 25 words. A sentence with one idea is easier to understand than a sentence with three ideas connected by commas and conjunctions.

Take a sentence like this: "Please be advised that in light of the upcoming parent- teacher conference week, which will take place during the week of November 11th through November 15th, all after-school programming will be suspended during this period."

Rewrite it as: "Parent-teacher conferences are the week of November 11 to 15. After- school programs will be closed that week." That is the same information in 15 words instead of 45. Every family can read it.

Use Common Words

Every profession has jargon. Education has more than most. The technical vocabulary of school communication, formative, summative, Tier 2, proficiency, scaffolding, benchmark, IEP, 504, RTI, MTSS, does not translate directly into other languages and is not familiar to families who did not go to school in the US.

Replace each jargon term with a plain description. Instead of "formative assessment," write "a short check to see what students know so far." Instead of "scaffolding," write "step-by-step support." Instead of "RTI," write "extra help for students who need more practice."

Put the Most Important Information First

Many school newsletters bury the most important information in the third paragraph. Families who do not read the whole newsletter miss it. Families who are reading slowly or through translation give up before they reach it.

Every section of the newsletter should follow the same structure: the most important information in the first sentence, details in the following sentences. The dates, deadlines, and required actions should be in the first paragraph of the newsletter, not the last.

Use Visuals to Create Navigation

A newsletter that looks like a block of text is harder to navigate than a newsletter with clear section breaks, headings, and visual markers. For families who are reading slowly or using a translation app to read section by section, visual structure helps them find the part that is relevant to them.

Simple additions make a significant difference: bold headings for each section, a different color or box for the most important action item, a simple icon next to each section type, and bullet points for any list of items. These are not design choices. They are accessibility choices.

Test Before You Send

Before sending a newsletter, paste it into the Hemingway Editor at hemingwayapp.com. The tool highlights complex sentences, passive voice, and adverbs, and shows the overall reading grade level. Target grade 5 to 6 for a general family newsletter. Sentences highlighted in red should be rewritten. Sentences highlighted in yellow should be considered for simplification.

The second test is reading the newsletter aloud. If you stumble over a sentence when reading it out loud, rewrite it. If reading the newsletter takes longer than two minutes, cut it. A newsletter that takes two minutes to read is a newsletter families will finish. A newsletter that takes five minutes to read is a newsletter many families will not get through.