Never forget that you are communicating with someone else through your written words. If you are not communicating effectively or efficiently, you are wasting your patron's (and your own) time and effort.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy from 2017 shows that the majority of Americans 25-65 read at a level that allows for only straight-forward inferences, one or two basic points within a paragraph, and only a little additional information. Arkansas has 35% of its population at or below this level of reading.
As a guide in your writing, aim for the average 13-year-old (8th grader) to understand it.
When you read something silently, how many people hear you? One: You.
Written words are simply stand-ins for spoken words.
The words on the paper (or screen or wherever) speak directly to you, the reader. So, speak directly to the reader of your words, not to all patrons at once. It feels more official and bureaucratic to make a grand announcement at the top of the page of "ATTENTION PATRONS," -- and it sort of is, but in the bad way. No one wants to be talked down to by faceless, nameless "authorities." They want to be part of the conversation.
When writing your announcements, especially negative ones, think about having to say those exact words directly to a patron's face. If you feel you need to hide behind the sheet of paper to say it, you need to rewrite it.
Actively tell your readers what you need of them.
Passive voice is common because it separates the subject from its action in a way that softens the sometimes harsh tone that comes with active voice. However, this softening also makes it harder to understand.
Ten books may be borrowed at a time. - Passive (Also, do you really talk like that?? Remember you are talking to someone.)
You may borrow ten books at a time. - Active
The passive sentence above does not have a doer in it. Who may do the borrowing? It is indirectly pointed to the patron, but the books are made the subject.
Keep your Style Simple and direct:
Make the subject the doer - talk to your patrons, not around them. The active sentence above is talking to the doer: You (the reader/patron).
Tell them what they can do: may borrow.
Give details: ten books at a time.
Also, patrons may not be the doer in your sentence. Be sure whoever/whatever is the subject is clear and is receiving the action. Such as:
Proof of county residence may be required to receive a library card. - passive (and confusing - does "may be required" equal optional? Or is this your attempt to politely say "Please don't yell at me when I ask you for your ID."?)
We must see proof that you live within the county before giving you a library card. - active (and more plain)
Contractions are okay.
When you speak naturally, do you use contractions? Then, use them in your writing to patrons. We're not writing formal research papers, we're talking to our patrons.
Subject - Verb - Object
Jane went to the library.
She read some books.
She had fun.
It was the first type of sentence we learned to write for a reason. It is simple. It is effective.
Some fun was had by Jane when she went to the library and read some books.
Technically, that sentence is okay. However, it is more difficult to read because the information is jumbled up. You have to first read "some fun was had" - keep that in your short-term memory - then read "by Jane" - okay so now we know who or what we are talking about, so add that to our short-term memory - then "when she went to the library" - so now we know the setting, but is that why she had fun? Nope, because we still have to read "and read some books." Then, our brain does some magic and puts it all in order so that we can understand that Jane went to the library, she read some books, and she had fun.
So, the longer sentence may seem more stylistically pleasing because you have combined three short, simple sentences into one complex one, but it actually takes much more brain power to read through and understand. Those of us who have practiced reading a lot over the years feel like we can figure it out with no problems. However, many readers are not that skilled. Many people struggle to read and understand such complicated sentence structures. We may ourselves start finding that skill harder to perform as we age.
Make life easier on all your patrons: tell them what you are talking about, then tell them what is happening (use active verbs whenever possible), then give them the details. The less brain power they have to use figuring out your writing style, the more brain power they can use thinking about the importance your message.
Choose one point, make it, add only necessary details, then move on. Adding too many points adds difficulty to your message. If there are multiple points that absolutely must be made, make them clear and separate. Clearly separated points helps your reader grasp each concept before moving to the next. Cramming all your points together may save room on the page, but it makes each of them harder to understand.
Not all information is important.
Decide what information is essential, what is helpful, and what is just clogging up the message. Highlight the essential information - limit the helpful information and make it less "loud" on the page - cut the rest. You can always add a tagline at the end saying something like "Ask us for more information" to signal to interested patrons that they can access more information.
Librarians love a good list, and your patrons do too. Bulleted or numbered lists make information quick and easy to understand.
Tips for writing a good list:
Keep your items short
Use similar sentence structures for each item (ex. verb-object)
Punctuate consistently, not necessarily correctly
Move repeated phrases to the list opener (before the colon)
Add items in a logical sequence
You are not writing to other librarians in the vast majority of your writing. Even so, librarians might appreciate a mental break from the jargon too. Sometimes it is hard for us to see words that can be considered jargon. When I say "Circulation Desk" or "Reference Librarian" I'm sure you knew exactly what I was talking about. But would a new patron? We ask a lot of our new patrons by forcing them to learn our vocabulary to use the library. Words like "OPAC" or "database" or "call number" mean nothing to someone who has not be educated in the use of libraries. To us, these seem like simple words anyone should know, but how did you learn them?
We need to consider commonly understood words to make the library inclusive. "Check Out" does not mean the same thing anywhere else. If you are in a grocery store, that term means you are spending money. So, new library users may assume that it means the same thing in the library. We could use "Borrow" instead which conveys the commonly understood concept that a person will take possession of something without charge because it will be returned at a later date.
Think about all the words you use within the library setting that do not have the same implied meaning elsewhere. When a word changes meanings simply because the location of its use has changed, you should probably consider it jargon and find a word with a more common meaning.
Words have a shelf-life. Some are stable for a really long time while others go bad pretty quickly. Use words that are still commonly used and have a commonly understood meaning. Yes, there may be an old word that perfectly sums up your idea that would take several words to express otherwise. However, if the average person does not know what that old word means, then you haven't communicated effectively.
There are other words that might feel common, but have a better, easier alternative. Think of "utilize." This feels common, but isn't "use" much easier to understand? Also, there is no change in the meaning of the phrases: "Utilize common words." and "Use common words." Many people use "Utilize" when they are actually trying to make their writing sound smarter. In actuality, there is no difference in the "smartness" of the idea behind the two phrases except that fewer, more highly educated, people can understand the first one. So, you have limited your audience by excluding those who do not understand that the word "utilize" means the same thing as "use."
Many of us feel that if we can string words together, then we are actually making our writing shorter and, therefore, faster to read. However, when we string a lot of nouns together to avoid adding a few more words to a sentence, it can be very difficult to figure out exactly what the subject of the sentence is.
Read this sentence: Little Rock Public Library patron behavior expectations are as follows.
How many times did your brain automatically stop expecting the next word to be the verb? I would guess at least 3 times, maybe 4 or more.
Many of us (but not everyone) will automatically lump the capitalized words together as one noun - Little Rock Public Library. Then our brains pause to look for the verb. But we read "patron" which is clearly not a verb. Pause again for the verb. "Behavior." Again, not a verb. Pause again. "Expectations." Verb??? Not really. We can "expect" things, but we have "expectations." So, in this case, it is a noun and the actual subject of the sentence because the following list describes how we expect patrons to act in the Library. In the long run, we will save our readers a headache by not stringing nouns together to just save a few words.
Negative phrasing is generally harder to understand than positive phrasing. Most of the time we use negative phrasing to make a concept sound less harsh softer. Avoid negative phrasing Use positive phrasing to say what you mean plainly. Negatives require a reader to infer the opposite in order to fully grasp what you are saying. This can be hard for many people to do. So, rewrite negative phrases to their opposites which will cut out the mental processing time and energy needed by the reader.
You may not check out more than 10 items. - vs - You may only check out up to 10 items.
You cannot be under 18. - vs - You must be at least 18.
Exception
There is a time and place for the DO NOTs. When you really need to make sure patrons do not do something, don't try to soften the blow by making it positive. Just say "Do not do that." You can soften the blow with a short explanation of why that is a bad thing to do after the directive.
We have a tendency to collect data that really has nothing to do with the purpose of the form because "we may use it some day." Resist this temptation. Ask only for information that is necessary to the task at hand and no more. Leave collecting all that extra data for when you know exactly how you are going to use it. The more extra stuff you add to a form, the more frustrating and difficult the form is to complete. Ask for only what is necessary and be clear about what information goes where on the form.