From the course: Writing in Plain Language

Use tables to simplify complex content

From the course: Writing in Plain Language

Use tables to simplify complex content

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- Let's imagine you are the world's most avid do-it-yourselfer, and you're going to make your own electric guitar. You're reading an article about the supplies you'll need, and it contains this paragraph. While there's really nothing wrong with the paragraph, it's not the easiest read for a person who wants to make a shopping list. Putting that same information into a table makes it much easier for the reader to scan what you've written and find what they're looking for. You know your paragraph should be a table if the sentence structure is repetitive. That's a clue that what you're writing about can be put into categories. Or, if your reader will want to compare items. Tables present similar information in similar places, making comparison easy. Take this table, for example. It explains three different membership options at Landon Gym, and is much easier to read than a long, wordy paragraph. The reader can easily compare the various plans and choose the one they prefer. The easy comparison also helps the reader ask better questions, like, "If I want to include a fifth family member "in my membership, will I have to pay the family fee "of $99 per month, plus the adult fee of $39?" Finally, tables can also present cause-effect content, like this one. The column names show they aren't just categories. They are two categories that have a cause-effect relationship. If you need some practice, download the exercise file for this lesson. You can use the information I've provided to create a table, and take a look at my table when you're done. Don't let anyone tell you that using a table isn't real, plain language writing. It is. Anything you can do that helps your reader understand and use what you've written is definitely real, and definitely plain language, too.

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