Category: We Heart Health Literacy

We see the words “hazardous” and “hazard” all the time. Journalists ❤︎ them, and with good reason — they tend to get our attention and keep us reading. But there are, ahem, hazards to using these words — namely that they’re often vague or misleading. After all, a hazard could be anything from a joke to something really awful!

So, why take “hazard” out of your health content? Because, as health communicators, our goal is to share clear information without causing panic or confusion.

Here’s what we see as the perils of these fearsome words.

• They’re vague. Readers may miss out on key information and either underestimate a serious risk or get worried about something that’s not a big deal.
• They’re misleading. Leave the clickbait to Buzzfeed. Using attention-grabbing words like “hazardous” may get people to read your content, but it’s not great at building trust.
• They’re usually not necessary. If you can’t be more specific, use a word that’s easier to understand — like “danger.”

Check out these examples:

• Many Americans live just a few miles away from a hazardous waste site. (Vague.)
• Alcohol can be hazardous to your health. (Still vague!)
• Hazards ahead for your healthy habits this holiday season! (Vague and misleading.)

Instead, consider:

• Many Americans live close to sites where harmful chemicals were used in the past.
• Drinking too much alcohol can cause serious health problems, like liver damage.
• Many people have trouble sticking to physical activity and healthy eating routines during the holidays.

The bottom line: In plain language writing, there’s usually a better way to go than “hazard” or “hazardous.”

Here at We ❤︎ Health Literacy Headquarters, we’re big fans of a team approach to creating great health communication products. Each member of the team — writers, designers, researchers, user experience wizards — brings their own skills, perspective, expertise, and approach. And as countless children’s television shows and popular board games teach us, teams need to work together and communicate well to be successful.

One great tool to help teams communicate is sketching. That’s right, drawing with a pen and paper the old-fashioned way. This can be super helpful when it’s time for writers to hand off content to designers.

The next time you’re ready to pass content to a designer, take a few minutes to visually capture anything that goes beyond the words. Working on a webpage? Sketch out where you think the images or call-out boxes should go. Writing content for an app? Draw how you envision the text fitting into the different screens.

Sketching can do a lot more than you may think. Here’s why we ❤︎ it.

Anyone can do it. You don’t need to be a design genius or know how to use a fancy wireframing program — just grab a pen and paper, and you’re off to the races!

It’s fast and cheap. Fancy wireframing programs have their place — but often, they’re more than you need. With sketching, you can explore lots of potential ways to structure your content without sinking a ton of time into each one.

It helps you see how your content will look. Ever spent hours crafting a brilliantly detailed intro paragraph before learning that there’s only space for 20 words? Sketching while writing helps you develop content within its visual context.

Designers ❤︎︎ it. Obviously, designers are visual people. Instead of a document with paragraphs upon paragraphs of explanations, try giving them a sketch!

“A stitch in time…” Sketching can help you and others on your team get on the same page quickly and avoid misunderstandings — saving everyone time, money, and frustration.

The bottom line: Sketching is a great way to communicate visual ideas — and anyone can do it. What’s not to ❤︎?

As much as we ❤︎ the English language, dear readers, we also feel haunted by the vague, archaic, jargon-y, and generally unhelpful words that often sneak into health communication. (You may recall our rants about exceeding preventable substances. Well, not quite — but you get us.)

The ghost we want to exorcise today? “Healthful.” Shudder.

Some people think “healthful” is just a dressed-up version of “healthy” — but that’s not totally true. Technically, “healthful” means “promoting good health” and “healthy” means “in good health.” So, according to conventional grammar rules, you’d describe a diet or lifestyle as healthful — not healthy.

That’s all well and good, but here’s our technical analysis of the word “healthful”: it sounds weird. As you probably know by now, best practices for health literacy tell us to write the way we speak, which makes your content easier to understand and less distracting. And most people just don’t talk about things being healthful.

We recommend sticking with “healthy,” even when it’s not the grammatically correct choice (don’t worry, we won’t tell your 7th grade English teacher). For example, we give you permission to say: “A healthy diet can help lower your risk for chronic health problems like heart disease.”

The bottom line: “Healthful” isn’t helpful — as a general rule, opt for “healthy” instead.

This week, we’re weighing in on one of the great debates of our grammatical lifetimes: do you use a single space or a double space after the period (or other punctuation) at the end of a sentence?

Fortunately, the answer is simple. Single space, dear readers. One. Space. Only. There’s absolutely zero need for double spaces anymore.

Did that come through clearly enough? Great. Now here’s why.

Using double spaces after a sentence was originally used to improve readability, particularly when typing on a typewriter. Typewriters use a monospaced font — meaning each character has the same width. So the extra spaces were useful — they helped clearly separate sentences from each other.

Nowadays, our computers use proportional fonts (fonts in which characters have different widths) — and that makes it easier to see where one sentence ends and the next one begins.

So. Why. Write. Like. This?

When. You. Can. Write. Like. This!

If that’s not convincing enough, the industry standard is to use a single space after a sentence. Happy single spacing!

The bottom line: Double spaces after a period = too much space between sentences.

The AMC TV series The Walking Dead (in which people try to survive a zombie apocalypse) can certainly be a lesson in zombie preparedness. But did you know it can also teach us about writing for health literacy? Here are 10 lessons in plain language survival.

1. Stick together. In a post-apocalyptic world, going it alone rarely works out. The same goes for developing original health content. Before you start, find out what else is out there, what works, and what doesn’t. This information can make a big difference, so fight the urge to go rogue.
2. Get organized. Any group navigating a zombie hellscape knows that organization — Who’s leading? Who’s prepping meals? — is key. And in health communication, well-structured content is a necessity. Put the most important information first, and use bulleted lists, headers, and short sections to present information clearly.
3. Know the difference between a walker and a biter. In other words, know your audience. What do they call walking corpses with an insatiable taste for human flesh? Lamebrains? Lurkers? Rotters? Be sure to use terms consistently and define them as needed — for example: “Learn to fight zombies (lamebrains).”
4. Clear the area. Zombie survivalists know better than to get comfortable somewhere without first finding and killing any lurking zombies. What does this mean for you, dear readers? Cut out the fluff! Find and remove unnecessary details, jargon, and technical terms from your health materials.
5. Bury your dead. Kill off clichés, that is. If you’re tempted to use a phrase like “think outside the box,” think again. Bury that cliché and replace it with something more straightforward. Do you mean, “be creative?” Write what you mean.
6. Be aware of your surroundings. This is pretty obvious when zombies are around — and it’s just as important for writing effective content. What is your audience looking for? What challenges might they face? Remember, context is your friend.
7. Don’t make noise. Zombies aren’t too smart, but they do know that where there’s noise, there’s food. You can pass the plain language test by being quiet. Use simple, transparent terms and only say what you need to. Complex language could bring an undead horde to your door — or, worse, confuse your readers!
8. Be active. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: active is better than passive. Any character who has made it through 7 seasons of The Walking Dead has done so by facing dangers head on. And in clear writing, the active voice is essential.
9. Keep a lookout. Even when you find a safe place to wait out the apocalypse, don’t relax without putting someone on guard duty! No matter how carefully you craft your content, an editor is essential. Don’t skip the second set of eyes.
10. Be human. After all, what’s the point of surviving in a world of zombies if you’ve lost all connection with people? Whenever possible, write how you speak.

The bottom line: Look no further than The Walking Dead for some excellent lessons for health communicators.

As health communicators, we know it’s our responsibility to choose our words carefully — especially when we’re tackling topics like gender or disability. This goes for race and ethnicity, too. But not to fear, dear readers — we’re here to clear things up!

First things first: although they can overlap, race and ethnicity aren’t the same thing, so you can’t just use the words interchangeably. It’s also important to note that these words can mean different things to different people depending on their experiences. Here’s our take:

• Ethnicity is a social construct. It’s how people identify with their culture, including its religion, traditional practices, and language — regardless of where they were born or how they look. For example, you could say someone’s ethnicity is Chinese or Irish.
• Race is also a social construct — and a complicated one at that. But unlike ethnicity, it’s based on generalizations about physical features like skin color. For example, you could say someone’s race is white, black or African American, or Native American.

Despite being social constructs, race and ethnicity are very real — and in public health, we often need to talk about them. So what’s a health communicator to do? Here’s our advice:

Don’t ignore it. Of course, there are plenty of times when race just isn’t relevant. But if it is, go ahead and say so. For example, if you’re writing about high blood pressure, it makes sense to note that African Americans are at higher risk.

Provide context. If you’re writing about a health disparity with a known cause, consider mentioning it. For example, if you say that black children are more likely to be suspended from school than white children, put that information in context by also noting that teachers often suspend black children more quickly than white children for the same behavior.

Be as specific as you can. Check out these 2 sentences:

• Age, race and ethnicity, and weight can increase your risk for developing high blood pressure.
• Some groups of people are more likely to have high blood pressure, including African Americans, people age 40 or older, and people who are overweight.

The first sentence leaves the reader wondering who is actually at higher risk, while the second one gets right to the point — and you know how much we ❤︎ that.

Follow the golden rule. Treat others as you’d like to be treated. In this case, that means referring to racial and ethnic groups using the terms that they prefer.

The bottom line: When writing about race and ethnicity, give it the extra thought it deserves.

As a health literacy superstar, it’s your job to give people the right information in the right way. But sometimes it can be tough to know what the right information is. Seasoned public health professionals would say: when in doubt, look to the data. We say: okay, but don’t stop there.

Many public health communication materials are developed because studies have identified a serious health problem or risk. For example, if a survey shows that there are high rates of smoking in a given population, a public health agency might develop smoking cessation ads aimed at that audience. But the truth is, dear readers, data don’t always tell the whole story. And that can lead to a disconnect between what public health agencies say — and what people need to hear.

Take herpes, a common STD that can cause really uncomfortable genital sores or blisters. Herpes isn’t life threatening like some STDs — and it tends not to cause serious complications. So, with a lot to say and limited time and money to say it, most public health agencies choose to focus their communication efforts on other STDs.

But the fact remains that a lot of people have herpes — and there’s lots of stigma and fear associated with it. That’s why we’d argue that thinking about what kind of information your audience may need about herpes is totally worth it. For example, we know that folks struggle with how to tell their partners they have herpes. Maybe they need a really awesome, compassionate conversation tool to help them out!

The point is that herpes is worth talking about, even though it isn’t a particularly serious STD (medically speaking). Why? People want to know about it — and that’s seriously important.

The bottom line: When deciding what to communicate about, look beyond the data to your readers’ concerns.

Nerd alert! Imagine there’s an outbreak of 4 new deadly viruses, and you and your friends are a team of public health specialists. If your outbreak response strategy succeeds, you eradicate the viruses and save the world. But if it fails, the viruses take over the globe and humanity is wiped out.

That, dear readers, is the premise of the board game Pandemic. The game unfolds across a map of the world, and you make moves — like building a research station or eradicating the disease in a particular city — to contain the outbreak. But all the while, you and your fellow geeks (er, teammates) draw cards that worsen the outbreak and “infections” build up in different cities.

Pandemic is a cooperative game, meaning everyone works together to win. Players take on roles with special skill sets — dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher, or operations expert — and strategize with other team members to win. But biology and time are working against you — if your team can’t contain the outbreak quickly enough, you all lose the game. Oh, and the human race is lost to a pandemic.

Besides being a fun game to play, Pandemic is also a nice reminder of what successful public health initiatives look like. Public health is an interdisciplinary field — and most of the successes we’ve seen have been the result of true collaboration and effective teamwork. After all, improving public health requires education, medical care, policy, communication, outreach, research…

And you know what they say about the spelling of the word “team.”

The bottom line: Play Pandemic to appreciate how much of a team effort public health strategy really is — you just might save the world.

In this week’s edition of our “use simpler words” series, we’re talking about “substance.”

“Substance” is one of those vague words that may not need to be simplified as much as it needs to be clarified. After all, a substance is pretty much anything that takes up space. And do you know, dear readers, how many substances exist out there? We actually don’t either, but there must be a lot.

In our experience here at We ❤︎ Health Literacy headquarters, the word “substance” tends to pop up most when writing about 2 topics: environmental health and drug and alcohol use.

Consider these examples:

• Talk with your kids early and often about substance use.
• Studies show that contact with these substances can cause serious health problems.

What exactly are we talking about here? Alcohol? Drugs? Asbestos?

Here’s our advice: instead of leaving it at “substance,” tell us more about what the substance is. And if you can, just name it!

For example:

• Talk with your kids early and often about alcohol and drug use.
• Studies show that contact with these chemicals can cause serious health problems.

Simple, right?

Of course this method isn’t one-size-fits-all. Sometimes, “substance” really is the best word to describe, well, a substance. But try to be as specific as possible — so your readers don’t accidentally think you’re talking about, you know, polybrominated diphenylethers. (Granted, that’s not a very likely scenario. But you get it.)

The bottom line: When you can, skip “substance” and just name what you’re talking about.