Holy Fog Index! Doctors Urged to Write Clearly
In a spot-on post last month, the editors of Readable.io noted a key new push in the practice of medicine: Writing clearly. Their article offers a much-needed reminder to B2B editors to observe Fog Index principles. Foggy writing is still a big problem for B2B: Of 500 articles reviewed in Editorial Solutions’s latest study of online news, 201 failed the Fog Index test.
Not sure what the Fog Index is? See point 1 in last year’s review of three basic e-news components. Better yet, take a look at the two chapters addressing brevity and other Fog Index issues in my book, Get Serious About Editorial Management.
For now, as you tackle defogging your e-news, be on the lookout for these flaws common on B2B online sites:
- The first sentence of an article is too long, exceeding 20 to 25 words.
- Basic, long compound sentences are not immediately split during the editing process.
- Press release babble, often found in long quotes, is allowed to survive unedited.
- The name, date, and location of an event are squeezed into one overstuffed sentence.