Federal agencies have been required to write in plain language since 2010. The same habits work for leases, emails and product pages. Readability formulas can check the result, as long as you know what they measure.
The Plain Writing Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-274, signed October 13, 2010) requires federal agencies to write all new or substantially revised documents in plain writing, train employees in it, and report on their compliance. The law defines plain writing as writing that is clear, concise and well organized and that follows the best practices for its subject and audience. Under OMB guidance, agencies are expected to follow the Federal Plain Language Guidelines, now published on Digital.gov.
Digital.gov’s plain-language guide (September 2025) lists six principles: write for your audience, which it calls the first rule; open with a topic sentence; use the active voice; organize information so readers know what to expect, with long documents summarized up front; use tables where they help; and use lists. Its “short and simple” page warns that long sentences with many clauses confuse readers, and it targets wordy habits such as doublets (“due” instead of “due and payable,” “stop” instead of “cease and desist”) and switching terms for the same group.
Before: “In accordance with the provisions of the agreement, it is incumbent upon the tenant to provide written notification to the landlord no less than thirty days prior to the termination of occupancy, and failure to provide such notification may result in the forfeiture of all or a portion of the security deposit.”
After: “You must tell your landlord in writing at least 30 days before you move out. If you do not, you may lose some or all of your security deposit.”
| Version | Words | Words per sentence | Flesch Reading Ease | Flesch-Kincaid grade | Gunning Fog |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before | 52 | 52.0 | 6.0 | 25.3 | 29.3 |
| After | 29 | 14.5 | 87.1 | 4.7 | 8.6 |
The rewrite speaks to the reader (“you”), names who acts, turns nouns back into verbs (“provide written notification” becomes “tell in writing”), splits one sentence into two and swaps “prior to the termination of occupancy” for “before you move out.” The meaning is unchanged; the Flesch-Kincaid grade falls by 20.6. Paste your own drafts into the reading level calculator to score them the same way.
Rudolf Flesch’s Reading Ease formula (1948) and the grade-level version Kincaid and colleagues fit for the U.S. Navy in 1975 use only two inputs: average sentence length and average syllables per word. The Gunning Fog index counts words of three or more syllables instead. None of them reads for meaning. The federal guidelines do not set a target score, but health writing often does: a 2021 review of patient materials compared them with the American Medical Association’s recommended sixth-grade level and the National Institutes of Health’s eighth-grade level.
Short is not the same as clear. Choppy sentences with missing logic score well and still confuse. Plain language starts with the audience, not the formula.
Necessary terms raise the grade. “Security deposit” and “prescription” add syllables but may be exactly the words the reader needs; define them rather than avoid them.
Lists and headings confuse the counters. Lines without end punctuation run together into one long “sentence.” Score the prose, then format.
Tools disagree. Each program counts syllables its own way, so compare drafts in one tool rather than chasing a number across several.
| Check | Why |
|---|---|
| Who is reading, and what must they do? | The first rule: write for your audience |
| Is the main point in the first sentence? | Topic sentences organize the reader’s expectations |
| Who does the action in each sentence? | Active voice names the actor |
| Could steps be a list, or comparisons a table? | Lists and tables carry detail without overload |
| Does the score fall after editing? | A readability score is a check on length, not a goal |
A 2010 federal law (Public Law 111-274) requiring federal agencies to write new or substantially revised documents in plain writing, train staff and report on compliance.
No. It covers federal agencies; businesses use the same principles voluntarily.
The federal guidelines set no score. Health writing often aims for a sixth-grade (AMA) to eighth-grade (NIH) level.
No. It only reflects sentence and word length. Use it to compare drafts, and test whether readers can actually find and use the information.
Write for your audience, lead with a topic sentence, use the active voice, organize information, and use tables and lists where they help.