As previously mentioned, appropriately planning the content of communication is critical, but how does one do that? After mapping out the intended message, the most important step in creation of content is understanding the level at which the audience is likely to be able to process the message. Many factors can shape audience readiness, but the key factors are their reading and/or education level and their familiarity with the subject matter.
It may seem reasonable to assume that if speaking to an audience of high school graduates, such as in a factory requiring a diploma for employment, that it would be safe to communicate on an 11th or 12th grade level. However, this would likely be a fallacy as the average reading level in the United States is generally considered to be between the eighth and ninth grade level; even the US Congress communicates at an average of about a tenth grade level.
As someone who needs to express a message, what does this mean to you? How does a paragraph constructed at the eighth grade level differ from one at the level of a college freshman? And when communicating an important message to a diverse crowd, which level should you choose?
There are several different methods used for measuring reading levels, but a common one is the Lexile score. Lexile scores take into account both the average number of words per sentence and word complexity. While you may not be able to reasonably get the score of your own communications, briefly looking over Lexile scores at your audiences’ targeted level may be helpful in framing your communication strategy.
Generally, it is best to use the most concise language possible to get your point across, especially when communicating verbally.
Examples of Lexile Scores:
From Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams (960L) (eighth grade level)
The business of arranging a meeting involved complications and a certain amount of danger. Campion would need to be guided by Kehaar, already surly at being asked to do so much. But the Watership rabbits would also need guiding. Plainly, one party would have to wait on the site for the others to arrive. There would be danger from elil. It was some time before everything was fixed. Campion sent word that he would start as soon as he learned from Kehaar that Hazel and the others had already reached the bank and were waiting for him. This would mean that the Watership rabbits would have to spend at least a night and a day in the open.
From Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (1050L)
The old house leaned forward slightly, and bulged out towards the passers-by. The roof inclined to one side, in the position a German student belonging to the Tugendbund wears his cap. The perpendicular of the house was not quite exact, but, on the whole, the house stood well enough, thanks to an old elm, firmly imbedded in the façade, which pushed its flower buds across the window-panes in spring.
From A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1290L)
A simpler model, however, was proposed in 1514 by a Polish priest, Nicholas Copernicus. (At first, perhaps for fear of being branded a heretic by his church, Copernicus circulated his model anonymously.) His idea was that the sun was stationary at the center and that the earth and the planets moved in circular orbits around the sun. Nearly a century passed before this idea was taken seriously. Then two astronomers-the German, Johannes Kepler, and the Italian, Galileo Galilei-started publicly to support the Copernican theory, despite the fact that the orbits it predicted did not quite match the ones observed.
From Landscape of Fear by Tony Magistrale (1410L) (approx. college level)
King’s most memorable and important characters, and the ones to whom, we, as readers, grow increasingly attached, are his children. Most of his fictional adolescents find themselves enmeshed in the dark complexities of an adult world; they are not responsible for either their parents’ divorces or governmental errors in judgment, but they are nonetheless forced into coping with the consequences of such events. The writer chooses to place them at the locus of so many of his books because their physical size and worldly unsophistication make them exceptionally vulnerable.
It may seem reasonable to assume that if speaking to an audience of high school graduates, such as in a factory requiring a diploma for employment, that it would be safe to communicate on an 11th or 12th grade level. However, this would likely be a fallacy as the average reading level in the United States is generally considered to be between the eighth and ninth grade level; even the US Congress communicates at an average of about a tenth grade level.
As someone who needs to express a message, what does this mean to you? How does a paragraph constructed at the eighth grade level differ from one at the level of a college freshman? And when communicating an important message to a diverse crowd, which level should you choose?
There are several different methods used for measuring reading levels, but a common one is the Lexile score. Lexile scores take into account both the average number of words per sentence and word complexity. While you may not be able to reasonably get the score of your own communications, briefly looking over Lexile scores at your audiences’ targeted level may be helpful in framing your communication strategy.
Generally, it is best to use the most concise language possible to get your point across, especially when communicating verbally.
Examples of Lexile Scores:
From Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams (960L) (eighth grade level)
The business of arranging a meeting involved complications and a certain amount of danger. Campion would need to be guided by Kehaar, already surly at being asked to do so much. But the Watership rabbits would also need guiding. Plainly, one party would have to wait on the site for the others to arrive. There would be danger from elil. It was some time before everything was fixed. Campion sent word that he would start as soon as he learned from Kehaar that Hazel and the others had already reached the bank and were waiting for him. This would mean that the Watership rabbits would have to spend at least a night and a day in the open.
From Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (1050L)
The old house leaned forward slightly, and bulged out towards the passers-by. The roof inclined to one side, in the position a German student belonging to the Tugendbund wears his cap. The perpendicular of the house was not quite exact, but, on the whole, the house stood well enough, thanks to an old elm, firmly imbedded in the façade, which pushed its flower buds across the window-panes in spring.
From A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1290L)
A simpler model, however, was proposed in 1514 by a Polish priest, Nicholas Copernicus. (At first, perhaps for fear of being branded a heretic by his church, Copernicus circulated his model anonymously.) His idea was that the sun was stationary at the center and that the earth and the planets moved in circular orbits around the sun. Nearly a century passed before this idea was taken seriously. Then two astronomers-the German, Johannes Kepler, and the Italian, Galileo Galilei-started publicly to support the Copernican theory, despite the fact that the orbits it predicted did not quite match the ones observed.
From Landscape of Fear by Tony Magistrale (1410L) (approx. college level)
King’s most memorable and important characters, and the ones to whom, we, as readers, grow increasingly attached, are his children. Most of his fictional adolescents find themselves enmeshed in the dark complexities of an adult world; they are not responsible for either their parents’ divorces or governmental errors in judgment, but they are nonetheless forced into coping with the consequences of such events. The writer chooses to place them at the locus of so many of his books because their physical size and worldly unsophistication make them exceptionally vulnerable.
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