Download our essential tools: the Maryland Plain Language Checklist, Web Content Review Tool, Health Literacy Criteria for Media Campaigns, and Health Literacy Criteria for Grants and Contracts.
The resources on this page will help you plan, assess, and revise your communications using science-based and best practices approaches to plain language and clear communication.
Plain Language Resources
Plain language is a set of techniques that helps your audience understand your content the first time they read or hear it. Learn more about plain language and the Federal Plain Language Guidelines.
The Hub's State and Local Agency Workgroup created this plain language checklist based on one from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. Applying this checklist to revise existing content or write new content will help agencies comply with the plain language requirements in the Hub law.
The Maryland Plain Language Action Planning Guide is intended to help your organization create a Plain Language and Language Access Action Plan. Every organization that provides public information needs to plan to make sure all its information is in plain language and accessible in the languages people use.
CDC publishes Vital Signs, plain language summaries of its data, analyses, and policy recommendations so that non-experts can use the information to be informed and take action. Each Vital Signs summary is linked to an MMWR article so that anyone can find the original data and analysis. Vital Signs provides an example of how to simplify complex information and make it easy to read for a wide range of people while also providing detailed information for highly motivated readers.
Jargon or "insider language" is common in written and spoken health information. Plain language glossaries give everyday-word alternatives to jargon. Check out these useful tools when writing or speaking about health.
- The Just Plain Clear glossary by UnitedHealth Group
- University of Maryland Baltimore's Health Sciences and Human Services curated this list of plain language glossaries and resources
- CDC's Everyday Words for Public Health Communication includes alternatives for common public health jargon. The glossary shows how to rewrite sentences and information chunks so they are short and in everyday words.
This series of brief animated videos uses humor and graphics to show plain language techniques. A caution about the video on bulleted lists: it uses a Western movie skit with simulated guns, bullets, and shooting as a pun on "bullets." The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sponsored the videos.
Health Literacy Criteria
Health literacy criteria cover how people find, understand, and use information and resources to make informed health decisions. Organizations that sponsor media campaigns or issue grants and contracts that include health information and communication activities should use these tools to make sure they are not creating or reinforcing health literacy barriers. HB1082 requires state and local agencies to submit their campaigns, contract, and grant documents to the Hub team for review.
Organizations that sponsor media campaigns that include health information and communication activities should design and implement the campaigns according to health literacy criteria. Use the Review Worksheet when planning a campaign and again, before campaign launch, to evaluate its alignment with health literacy criteria. HB1082 requires state and local agencies to submit their campaigns to the Hub team for review.
Email your campaign materials, the Media Campaign Cover Sheet and Review Worksheet to healthliteracy@umd.edu
State and local public agencies that issue grants and contracts that include health information and communication activities should use these tools to avoid inserting health literacy barriers in externally funded projects. Programs and projects that create or distribute health information materials, provide community-based services, or direct the public to healthcare services are examples of funded activities that could create or reinforce health literacy barriers. HB1082 requires state and local agencies to submit their contract and grant documents to the Hub team for review.
Email draft grant or contract documents to the Hub using the State and Local Agency Grants and Contracts Cover Sheet and Review Worksheet at healthliteracy@umd.edu
Clear Communication Basics
Clear communication includes a broad set of factors that affect how easily and accurately people understand the information and messages you're trying to share. Clear communication rests on many techniques, including everyday numbers and plain language that help people
- find what they need
- understand what they find
- use what they find to meet their needs
The CDC Index are research-based guidelines to help you evaluate and design public health materials that align with health literacy evidence. You use an online or print worksheet to work through 4 open-ended and 20 yes/no questions. The CDC website has the worksheet, examples and a User's Guide.
Public health professionals can use this website to find resources for communicating about health issues, including messaging tools and guides for responding to misinformation. Check out the Collaborative's Plain Language for Public Health communication tool for guidance on applying plain language principles to public health communication.
Communications Planning
Use this planning tool to identify the key elements of a strategic communication activity.
Data Communication and Visualization
Communicating scientific data to lay audiences is difficult. Use these resources to help your audience understand "the numbers" and the meaning behind them.
The NIH National Cancer Institute created these guidelines and examples to help communicators present data in easy-to-understand formats.
This free online tool from Stephanie Evergreen evaluates uploaded visualizations. Note: We're linking to the free content as a public service, but this is not an endorsement of paid or commercial services also available on the website.
Readability
A classic text in health literacy, this book covers a wide range of topics, including educational theories, tests for literacy skills, assessments of the suitability of materials, as well as discussion and examples of understandable visuals. The book is posted here in sections; please click on the links to download each section.
The SMOG is considered to be the most rigorous of the reading assessment tools because it focuses on the length of words and sentences rather than on words alone.