Lists of forbidden health terms!!!!

A reader asked me to give some alternatives to deleting more complicated or technical words and simply substituting easy ones - the subject of yesterday's post. 

 

Instead of creating a dossier of words you “shouldn’t use” try any of these:
 

Original Sentence
"The flu can be transmitted easily from one person to another."
Deletion – Substitution
"The flu can spread easily from one person to another."
 
 
1. Use parenthesis (or other kind of call out)
The flu can be transmitted (passed) from one person to another.
 
2. Create reference and reinforcement across sentences (cohesion)
a.  The flu can be transmitted from one person to another. It is easy for one person to give the flu to another person.
 
b.  It is important to stay home if you have the flu.  Flu spreads easily. The flu can be transmitted from one person to another.
 
3.  Activate sentences
A person can transmit the flu to another person.  If you have the flu you can easily pass it to another person or many people.
 
4. Prompt for active reading through guessing & inference
a.  If you have the flu you can transmit it to other people and they can get sick too.
 
b.  The postal worker went to work when he was sick.  He transmitted the flu to his co-workers.  He didn’t know he could give them the flu. 
 
When we analyze sentences in isolation or “test” materials by having readers read one sentence at a time and “tell me what that means” that's when we get stuck on the idea that every word has to be comprehended. 
 
Liberate yourself (and your audience)  from word for word reading!    

You’ll be amazed how empowering it is to let language do what it’s meant to do.
And who knows,  you might start jettisoning that dossier of forbidden words.
You will be far happier and your readers too if you keep in mind how people really read (even less able readers):

We read and scan,

We read, skip and guess,

We read back

We read and learn