How to Write Clear Copy

You can picture the runners in the verse George Orwell quotes: "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." Then he rewrites it in what he calls modern English:

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity

Orwell published this comparison in "Politics and the English Language," in Horizon in April 1946. The runners have become "competitive activities." You have to recover the people and actions before you can follow the thought.

Thaddeus and his pottery studio, Bramblebell Workshops, are invented for this lesson. He's answering the third email this week about when bowls can be collected. His booking page has an answer, of a sort: "Collection arrangements will be communicated."

Give the sentence a visible job

Start by writing down what the reader needs from the passage. A student who has just made a bowl wants to know when it'll be ready and how they'll find out.

Thaddeus's sentence tells students that something will happen. It leaves out when, and who'll tell them.

He writes "How will I know my bowl is ready?" beside the draft so he can judge each revision against it. The good-copy rubric helps you choose the information a passage needs to supply.

Replace vague words with observable details

Orwell swaps a race for "competitive activities." Thaddeus's "arrangements" does the same to a bowl waiting on a shelf, and readers have to imagine the details themselves.

Words like "flexible" hide rules too. Does "flexible booking" mean free rescheduling, or cancelling whenever you like? Write the actual rule once you've checked it with whoever sets it.

Hypothetical booking-page edit

Vague reassurance

Enjoy complete booking flexibility.

Information someone can use

You can move your booking to another available class until 48 hours before it starts.

Check both the deadline and availability rule with the studio before publishing.

I'd take an exact rule over a flattering adjective almost every time. Some adjectives still earn their place, since "wet clay" tells a beginner something different from "fired clay."

Put the actor near the action

"Collection arrangements will be communicated" hides whoever does the communicating. When Thaddeus asks himself who that is, he finds that nobody at Bramblebell has ever been given the job of sending ready emails.

Nouns made from verbs, such as "communication" and "confirmation," often hide who does what. Turn them back into verbs and name the actor: "We email you when your piece is ready."

Passive voice still has its uses. "Your payment was declined" keeps the focus on what happened without blaming anyone. Name the actor whenever the reader needs to know who'll act.

Separate ideas without chopping the rhythm apart

A student preparing for class and a student collecting a fired bowl need instructions at different moments. Put preparation advice together and give collection its own place on the page.

Within each passage, follow the order the student lives through. The studio fires the piece after class, emails the student when it's ready and hands it over when they come back.

Who handles collection?

Too much compressed

• Collection arrangements will be communicated to participants.
• Missing information: who contacts the student, and how?

A sequence

• After class, we fire your piece.
• The studio emails you when it is ready to collect.
• You collect it from the studio.

Group related instructions, and start a new paragraph where the task or timing changes. Keep the collection details together so students can find the whole process in one place.

Keep the condition beside the promise

An editor in a hurry could cut the booking rule to "Reschedule anytime." That deletes the 48-hour deadline and promises students more freedom than Bramblebell offers, even if a policy link elsewhere still holds the rule.

Keep each condition where readers need it to understand the offer. After every big cut, compare the draft with the checked policy line by line.

Pronouns slip in the same way. "It will be ready after they review it" feels clear to the writer. Thaddeus tries "Your bowl will be ready after the studio checks it," then asks what that check involves before keeping the sentence.

Numbers need a starting point. "Ready in 14 days" could count from the class or from the firing, so check which one the studio means before it goes on the page.

Keep the checked policy open while reviewing the shorter version.

Compare the booking copy with the policy

Place the checked studio policy beside the page draft. Highlight where each limit appears in the copy, then ask someone to find the last moment they could change a booking. Mark any limit they miss before shortening the draft again.

Choose familiar words for the actual reader

Plain language keeps the specialist words a reader needs. "Kiln" belongs on a pottery page if you explain it where it first appears: "We fire your piece in a kiln, a high-temperature oven for pottery."

Nielsen Norman Group's comprehension guidance treats understanding as something separate from simple vocabulary, and it accepts specialist terms for readers who know them. A class for experienced ceramicists can skip the kiln explanation.

Orwell's parody shows what disappears when familiar images become abstractions. Check your pottery terms against that loss: can a beginner picture what happens to the bowl? Explain any unfamiliar step and add its checked timing.

Make the page easy to find your way through

Thaddeus puts the collection details under the heading "Collecting your piece." A student checking on a bowl can jump straight there without rereading the class description.

W3C's tips on writing for web accessibility include making link text meaningful and giving clear instructions. "Read the rescheduling policy" tells a visitor where the link goes, and "Click here" doesn't.

Its sample error message is specific: "The username 'superbear' is already in use." It identifies the failed entry.

For Bramblebell, write: "This class is full. Choose a class with available places." The message explains what went wrong and how to continue.

Nielsen Norman Group's web-reading study supports scannable, concise pages in the setting it tested. Use headings to help readers find answers, and keep the terms a reader comparing classes still needs.

A practical clarity pass

1. Name the job

   Write what the reader should learn or do in this passage.

2. Expose the facts

   Replace broad claims with checked details and identify the actor.

3. Untangle the order

   Keep conditions beside promises and instructions in the order they happen.

4. Check the meaning

   Ask an unfamiliar reader to explain the offer and next step without coaching.

Can a readability score tell you whether copy is clear?

A readability score can't tell Thaddeus who sends the collection email, or whether the deadline survived the last edit. Compare the wording with the studio's actual responsibilities and booking policy.

For a longer page, use editing passes to settle the facts before you polish the wording. If you want to keep some warmth while making a promise precise, see persuasive copy without pressure.

Then give an unfamiliar reader a task: find out how you'll know your bowl is ready. Ask them to point to the words they used, and compare their answer with what the studio actually does.

A question for the booking-page review

How will I know my bowl is ready?

Reader task for the Bramblebell example

Revise a passage without losing its conditions

Pick a passage of about 150 words and keep an untouched copy next to your revision. The Fundamentals topic offers more practice with the surrounding copy. Write the reader's question at the top, and list what you need to check with the person running the service.

Rewrite with the checked details and identify who handles each action the reader needs to understand. Compare the versions for lost conditions, then ask a reader to answer the question using the revised passage.

Thaddeus checks the kiln schedule with the studio. In this invented example, bowls are ready 14 days after the class, counted from the class date rather than the firing.

He writes his name beside "ready emails" on the studio rota. Under the collection heading he puts: "Your bowl will be ready to collect 14 days after your class. We'll email you that day."

He pastes the same two sentences into his reply to the waiting student.