Write at the right reading level

1. The rule

Rewrite everything below a third-grade reading level.

Not the pitch, not the headline, not the important part — everything. The instruction is to take all of your scripts, of every kind, and run them through a free reading-level application online.

What to run through it	Examples
Outbound email templates	The first message, every follow-up, every reply template
Phone scripts	Openers, qualification, booking
Text scripts	Every message in the sequence
Chat scripts	Direct messages, in-platform messages
Advertisements	The call-out, the body, the call to action

No tool is named on this page, on purpose. The reason given is practical: these applications go out of business all the time, so naming one dates the instruction. You can find one.

Flag: the grade to aim for. SOP 243, section 6, sets a different bar for the same kind of pass: bring all the funnel copy and the script under a fifth-grade score, with third grade called amazing, fifth usually closer to normal, and the score as low as it will go. More support for the fifth-grade side: one practice here aims speech as well as writing at that level, to reach the largest share of an audience, and adds that plain words force you to be clear: nothing can hide behind jargon. At least half of Americans are said to read below fifth grade, a figure given without its basis; the level for listening may be higher. What each costs: the third-grade bar here means more rewriting before anything is sent; the fifth-grade bar lets out copy that this page would rewrite again. This page does not settle which reading is right.

2. Why it works

You have a fraction of a second, and comprehension is the gate. The moment a reader hits a word they do not quite understand, they stop reading.

So the mechanism is not persuasion. It is that more people actually get it, and people who get it respond. Nothing about the offer changes. Only the number of people who can process it at speed changes.

For an advertisement, write it on these assumptions about the person seeing it:

• They have no idea who you are.
• They have no idea what you do.
• They have no idea how the thing works.
• They are in a rush, and they have a third-grade education.

3. The effect sizes

Where	The move	The effect	What kind of claim it is
Outbound email	All the templates rewritten below a third-grade reading level	A 50 percent bump in responses	A measured change at one company
Advertising	Ad copy kept below a third-grade reading level	Twice as many people respond	A rule of thumb for writing ads

The figures are for different media: a 50 percent bump on outbound email, and twice the response on advertising.

4. The pass itself

Step	What you do
1	Collect every script and template you send, in one place
2	Run each one through a free reading-level application
3	Rewrite anything above a third-grade level, and run it again
4	Check that nothing you removed was a number, a condition or a hedge — shorter words, same claims
5	Send it

Step four is the one this page adds to the instruction and the one worth guarding. Simplifying language is not the same as simplifying a claim, and a rewrite that drops a condition in the name of readability has made the message wrong rather than clear.

5. The same discipline applied to the call to action

Reading level is one part of being understood at speed. The other part is the instruction at the end, and it fails for the same reason: be clear rather than clever.

An advertisement that has done its job leaves the person with a large amount of motivation for a very small amount of time. The window is the asset, and you spend it by telling them exactly what to do next — click this button, call this number, reply with yes, go to this website. Naming the action is not optional, and advertisements that reach the end without naming one are common.

Make the action itself quick and easy to perform:

Element	What "easy" means
A phone number	One somebody can hold in their head while they reach for the phone
A button	Obvious, and obviously the thing to press
A web address	Short, and memorable enough to be typed rather than clicked

Why memorability is worth paying for. A short, clear web address carries some brand credibility, but the larger benefit is rarely stated: people remember it, and then they type it in by hand. In one business, 80 percent of traffic arrives from people hand-keying the address rather than following a link — which is a measure of whether people can find you at all, not a measure of taste. The position taken is that the market underprices short, clear addresses rather than overpricing them; that, and the readings of brand credibility and memorability above it, are offered as opinions.

The price paid for the address. This page gives no figure for what that address cost.

6. What it does not fix

Reading level moves the response rate on a message that is worth responding to. It does not make a weak offer into a strong one.

7. The checklist

Question	The answer
Who runs this	You, or whoever writes the scripts
What gets the pass	Every email, phone, text, chat and advertising script you use
The target	Below a third-grade reading level
The tool	Any free reading-level application; none is named, because they close
When it runs	Last, before sending
The effect on outbound email	A 50 percent response bump
The effect on advertising	Twice as many people responding
What must survive the rewrite	Every number, condition and hedge
The exact grade threshold for each medium	Not established on this page
How often to re-run it on an existing template	Not established on this page

8. What this page does not cover

Building the list is on SOP 27. What the message has to contain is on SOP 28. Volume, follow-up and the yield benchmarks are on SOP 29. The voicemail script is on SOP 30. Writing the opening seconds of an advertisement is on SOP 34, and the call-out that starts it is on SOP 32 and SOP 33.

The value elements that sit between the call-out and the call to action are on SOP 39. Translation and brand tone of voice are not covered on this page.