Once you have structured your content, you can start writing.
Language and readability
Readability is how easy it is for users to read your content.
44% of Australians have very low literacy levels, so we need to write with low readability.
Users are also generally time poor so the more readable your content is the more likely they are to read it.
Your content must meet the following readibility levels:
- Content for educators and professionals should have a reading level of 15 years or younger. (Hemingway grade 9).
- Content for parents and students must have a reading level of 14 years or younger. (Hemingway grade 8 or lower). This is mandated by Education State Board.
Use the
Hemingway Editor to help with readability. Keep in mind this tool displays US school grades, not Australian.
Remember to use inclusive language, for example, gender-neutral and person-first language. For more information about inclusive language refer to the
Australian Government Style Manual.
Write in plain English
You should build accessibility into your content right from the start. Everyone must be able to understand your content. This helps people find what they need quickly and easily absorb it. Once of the best ways to do this is by using common words, or plain English.
Plain English uses:
- short sentences
- clear sentences
- everyday language.
Refer to:
Content design: planning, writing and managing content.
How to write in plain English
Ways to improve your content and help users understand it includes:
- Use active voice, not passive. This helps you write clear, concise content.
- Be conversational. Write how you would normally speak.
- Use contractions like you’ll (but avoid negative contractions like can’t).
- Minimise punctuation. Use short sentences or a bullet list instead of a long sentence with many commas.
- Remove unnecessary words or phrases, such as ‘really’, ‘extremely’, ‘that’, ‘it’s important to note’. These words add no value to your content. Removing them is one of the best ways to improve a sentence.
- Do not use jargon, slang, cliches or metaphors. These don't translate into other languages accurately.
- Do not refer to people in the third person. Use 'you' to refer to the reader and 'we' to refer to the department. You can use 'the department' when it needs to be clarified.
Once you've completed your first draft, read the content out loud to yourself. If it sounds unnatural or you need to take extra breaths, go back and revise.
Common plain English alternatives
Some common plain English alternatives include:
- ‘before’ not ‘prior to’
- ‘start’ not ‘commence’
- ‘to’ not ‘in order to’
- ‘about’ not ‘regarding’
- ‘tell’ not ‘advise’
- ‘fill in’ not ‘complete’
- ‘extra’ not ‘additional’
- ‘help’ not ‘assist’
Explore a
list of common government words and their plain English terms.
For more information about plain English visit:
Writing for teachers, specialists and experts
When you're writing for a specialist audience, use plain English. Explain complex terms and avoid using acronyms or jargon.
Research shows that higher literacy people prefer plain English. This is because it allows them to understand the information as quickly as possible.
Do not use frequently asked questions (FAQs)
If you write your content to meet user needs, you will not need FAQs. If a question is asked frequently, it means you need that content on your web page.
We do not publish FAQs because they:
- duplicate content
- are not front loaded with keywords, making them hard to scan
- mean that content is not where people expect to find it; it needs to be in context
- are harder for search engines to crawl.
Read more about
why we should not use FAQs.
Links
Links need to describe where you're taking the user. Match the link text to the name, or the page description, of the linked page. This is beneficial to both sighted users and users who use assistive technology such as screen readers.
Keep links concise and put the most important words at the start of the link.
Do write:
Do not write:
- for more information visit
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/going-to-school/Pages/school-types.aspx
- 'click here', 'available here', or 'read more'. This does not support users with visual impairments or who use text-to-voice screen readers
- the URL, for example. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx. A screen reader reads out every single character of a URL. This will make reading or scanning a page a tedious process for a person using a screen reader
- generic locations such as the “intranet” or the “Department of Education and Training website”
Where to put links
Put most links at the end of sentences. Links reduce readability because they are distracting. If necessary, links can be in the middle of sentences.
Do not overcrowd a paragraph or repeatedly link to the same thing.
Do not place long lists of links on pages as they are rarely clicked on.
If you want to include resources or other information for users, you need to include a description of each link and why it can be helpful.
Do not deep link to web pages from within documents. URLs change frequently and cannot always be redirected. Instead, link to a high-level landing page.
Capital letters
Capital letters are harder to read. Keep them to a minimum.
Use sentence case for most things, including headings and titles of Department publications. This means capitalising the first word, but all others are lower case unless they are proper nouns. All headings are sentence case.
Lists and bullet points
Lists help users understand text more quickly.
Bullet points and numbered lists are used to represent unordered (bullet points) and ordered lists (numbered lists) only. This is because this special formatting works differently with screen readers and other accessible technologies.
When to use lists and bullet points
A list or bullet points should be a collection of three or more options, anything less would be better as a sentence.
Bullets and numbered lists should be written as either a completion of a sentence with multiple outcomes or as a list of separate options.
Avoid bulleting sentences and key points
Do not use a list to highlight key points.
Bulleting a sentence reduces the horizontal space it has on the page, making it harder to read and harder to scan. This effect is multiplied on a mobile or tablet. Screen readers and other accessible technologies will have difficulty making sense of these sentences.
If you want to draw attention to key points or facts, you should:
- use the inverted pyramid for writing to order the most important information first
- write a clear introduction that highlights essential points
- group similar points under clear headings and subheadings.
Never bold or italicise text
Do not use bold and italics. They make to harder for users to read and understand.
After your content is published
Content is not finished once it's published. It needs to be maintained. You need to regularly check that your content is up-to-date and still relevant to users.
You should also decide how you know if your content is successful, for example: a 20 per cent increase in page views?
The Digital team can provide analytics advice.
Pages may be unpublished or archived if:
- page views drop too low
- content hasn't been reviewed in six months or more
- content is not correct
- content has poor readability.
Portals do not work
We no longer publish portals or 'one stop shops'.
Portals do not work because they:
- hoard content away from where users would naturally look for it
- rely on users already knowing a special name to find information. Users rarely remember these special names.
- content for different audiences that is displayed on the same page ends up confusing all users.
Placement of pages
The Digital team will decide on the best location of your content in the wider structure of the website. We do this based on the type of information you plan to publish, the information architecture and research we've conducted on how our audiences look for information.
Our content publishing policy
All website content must follow the requirements on these pages.
The Digital team have final approval on what is published, and may reject or rewrite content that doesn’t follow this policy.
It's your responsibility to make sure content meets the Victorian Government's accessibly requirements, with support from information on this page and the Digital team.
Exceptions cannot be granted because accessibility is a legal requirement.
This page contains information adapted from: