Is my writing too hard to read?
Hard-to-read writing usually combines long sentences with many long words. Sometimes that's right for the audience; often it isn't. This guide helps you decide, and shows what to change.
Why it matters
Each long word and each long sentence adds a little effort. Together they can make a passage feel heavier than its ideas are.
What you can do
Use the everyday word where it means the same
Swap long words for shorter ones when nothing is lost.
Ask yourself: Which highlighted words are doing precise work, and which are just long?
Show an example
BeforeThe organization will facilitate the implementation of additional opportunities.
AfterThe group will help start more programs.
Shorten the longest sentences first
Splitting one long sentence usually lowers difficulty more than changing several words.
Ask yourself: Which sentence here is hardest to read aloud in one breath?
Show an example
BeforeBecause funding was reduced and enrollment increased simultaneously, administrators were required to reconsider their priorities.
AfterFunding fell just as enrollment rose. Administrators had to rethink their priorities.
Keep the necessary terms and explain them
Technical terms your readers need should stay; make the words around them simpler.
Ask yourself: Which terms does your reader truly need? Are the words around them as simple as they can be?
Show an example
BeforeComorbidity substantially complicates individualized treatment determinations.
AfterWhen patients have more than one condition (comorbidity), choosing a treatment gets harder.
When to leave it as it is
Your readers are specialists who expect this vocabulary, and simplifying would make the text less precise.
See it in a real text
Prosemetry raises this in paragraph 6 of Persuasion, Chapter 1 by Jane Austen. Open the sample at that paragraph to see the note as a writer would, read-only.
See it in your own draft
Prosemetry reads your Word document and marks the passages where this happens, so you know where to look. It doesn’t rewrite anything; the revising stays yours. Free to try, no account needed.
Analyze my draft