CG-3 Clear language and presentation principles and guidelines for the industry

Know your audience

In all communications directed at consumers, the FRFI needs to:

• be able to explain why the reader needs the information in the document.
• ensure the document is easy to understand, inviting and useful.
• find the right balance between its marketing, compliance and legal objectives and requirements in order to describe its products accurately but also in a clearly understandable way.

• Determine the needs of the reader the document is written for.
• Think from your reader’s point of view.
• Put yourself in that reader’s shoes: what questions would he or she ask?
• Keep in mind that reader’s average level of knowledge about the document’s subject.
• Do not underestimate the reader’s intelligence, but do not assume the reader understands the subject of the document.
• Consider the reader’s familiarity with procedures and terms.

Make your material understandable by planning your text

Let consumers know what they’re looking at and provide them the information they need.

Avoid ambiguities: be direct, concise and to the point. Use a logical pattern and make the links between your ideas obvious.

Remove any information that is not essential to your purpose. Will the consumers understand the document the first time they read it?

• Replace technical terms with equivalent everyday words wherever possible.
• Use concrete rather than abstract words as much as possible.
• Be precise when describing ideas and products.
• Be consistent by using the same terminology.
• Minimize your use of acronyms; define them the first time you use them, and be consistent.
• Use examples and tables to present comparisons or to explain a calculation.
• Keep most sentences short.
• Use the active voice (“The customer invests in certificates,” not “Certificates are invested in by customers.”)

Write clearly

Organize your ideas and structure your writing.

• Weigh the importance of every idea. Which is the most important? What content is necessary?
• Put the main message—the most important idea—first.
• Group related ideas together.
• Present the information in a logical order.
• Use lots of headings and subheadings. Descriptive headers will help your reader scan and absorb the information more easily and quickly
• Use short and simple sentences and paragraphs. Avoid the “wall of words.”
• Use footnotes for explanatory information or examples.
• In larger documents, include a table of contents for easier reference.

Use the visual presentation to enhance your text

Create a reader-friendly format. The way the information is presented on the page is almost as important as the words used to describe it.

Your document needs to be visually inviting.

• Use a readable and appropriate typeface and font size. The most common are Times New Roman or Arial at 10 to 12 point size.
• Use layout and spacing that separate sections.
• Leave plenty of white space between lines of text and paragraphs.
• Avoid a dense, block-like appearance.
• Leave the right margin ragged.
• Make key information easier to find.
• Use a text box or other graphical treatment to emphasize a particularly important idea.
• Highlight important information in boxes or bulleted lists.
• Use bold type and/or underlining to emphasize important information—for example: 19.9%

Test your material

A FRFI needs to test its documents in order to determine whether they are user-friendly.

It is especially important to test application forms and agreements that will be used by the average reader.

If the average consumer can read the entire document without feeling confused and without having to go back and read it again, you’ve passed the test.

• Test your documents on a variety of readers.
• Monitor how customers complete application forms and identify areas that cause confusion or misunderstanding.
• Seek feedback through focus groups and surveys.
• Add a statement to each document inviting readers to comment on its clarity and to suggest how to make it easier to understand.
• Use a checklist to ensure that clear language and presentation principles were followed.
• Ask yourself:
  
  • does the document speak clearly to the intended reader?
  • is the information organized and presented in a logical sequence?
  • is the most important information summarized in a box at the beginning of the document?
  • is the document written in the active voice?
  • Is the document organized in short sections?
  • are there more short sentences than long sentences?
  • does the document contain useful headings, sub-headings, tables and bulleted lists?
  • does it use short, familiar words instead of jargon?
  • is the text arranged neatly on the page with readable typefaces, appropriate use of boldface and italics and good use of white space?