Plain-Language Editing Checklist for Social Posts

Use the free post readability checker to inspect your original and an edited revision. This checklist adds the human decisions that counts cannot make. The worked example follows a fictional projector-hire offer, where a smooth rewrite must not lose the deposit, return time, included cable, or booking condition.

Record the facts before changing the words

Begin by naming the reader and the decision. For a projector-hire offer, a customer may need to decide whether the package suits a weekend event. They need the hire period, price, included equipment, separate costs, and booking process. They do not need every internal stock note. Defining that task helps you remove irrelevant material while protecting the details that change whether the offer is suitable for them.

Make a small fact record outside the public draft. Include each amount, currency, date, time, unit, inclusion, exclusion, and condition. Record the source and the person who can approve it. This is not a job the readability checker performs. It is your reference for checking that the revision still describes the same thing. Without it, a natural-sounding phrase can replace a precise commitment before anyone notices the difference.

Mark conditions as carefully as headline facts. Available after confirmation is different from available now. Includes an HDMI cable does not mean every adapter is included. A deposit returned after inspection is not simply a discount. Keep these relationships visible in the fact record. Do not treat small connecting words as expendable decoration when they determine how a reader can use the offer or what the business has promised.

Identify unknowns before polishing. If the source gives a return time but no collection location, ask for the location rather than making one up. If colleagues disagree about an inclusion, resolve that disagreement before publishing. A blank in your working notes is more honest than an invented answer in a fluent sentence. Plain language should reveal missing information early, not make an incomplete brief look finished through confident wording alone.

Rewrite the hire offer without dropping a condition

Here is the fictional original: Weekend projector hire is available for GBP 80 with an HDMI cable included, for collection from 10:00 on Friday and return by 10:00 on Monday, with a GBP 100 deposit returned after inspection, while screens and adapters are not included and bookings are confirmed only after we accept your request by email. All figures and arrangements in this example are invented for the editing exercise, not a real offer.

A revision could read: Weekend projector hire costs GBP 80 and includes an HDMI cable. Collect from 10:00 on Friday and return by 10:00 on Monday. Pay a GBP 100 deposit, returned after inspection. Screens and adapters are not included. Your booking is confirmed only after we accept your request by email. The draft uses several sentences, but the underlying offer stays the same. Each sentence answers a practical customer question.

Now check the revision against the fact record. GBP 80 remains the hire price, not a daily rate. GBP 100 remains a separate deposit. Collection is allowed from a time, while return is required by a time. The cable remains included; screens and adapters remain excluded. Email acceptance still controls confirmation. These checks matter more than the decrease in sentence length because each protects a different part of the customer expectation.

A tempting shorter version would be Hire a projector for the weekend for GBP 80. Everything you need is included. Book by email. It reads smoothly but changes the offer. Everything wrongly expands the inclusion, and booking by email does not explain the acceptance condition. Reject that version even if it produces fewer flags. Before real use, the business would also need to supply any missing practical details, such as the collection address.

Choose familiar terms and preserve exact units

Replace a formal phrase when a common word expresses the same action. Make a reservation request may become request a booking. But do not replace request with confirm if the business still needs to accept it. Check the action behind each word before choosing the simpler phrase. The best replacement is not merely shorter; it accurately describes who does what and what changes when they do it.

Keep an essential technical term and explain it where the reader needs it. HDMI names a particular type of connection; calling it just a cable can leave a customer unsure whether it fits their device. A useful draft can name the included HDMI cable and ask the customer to confirm their device connection separately. Avoid inventing compatibility advice. If the hire team has not checked a model, the post should not suggest that it has.

Attach numbers to the right units and categories. A weekly amount is not an hourly amount. A length in centimetres is not interchangeable with inches without a checked conversion. For the projector offer, write the currency alongside the price and deposit so their roles stay clear. If you convert a unit for a new audience, verify the calculation and rounding separately. Text counts cannot establish whether the converted figure describes the same quantity.

Review abbreviations from the audience perspective. An internal label such as W/E might be familiar to staff and unclear to customers. Spell out weekend if that is what you mean. Keep a recognized product identifier when it helps someone choose the right item. Use one name for each item throughout the post. Switching between package, kit, and system can create uncertainty about whether the words describe one offer or several different options.

Keep logical relationships intact when splitting sentences

Splitting a long sentence is an editing choice, not a mechanical cure. First identify its main statement, reason, condition, and exception. Decide which parts can stand alone and which must remain connected. In the hire example, the confirmation condition belongs with the booking action. Moving it far away can leave the first instruction sounding unconditional. A full stop should make the relationship easier to follow, not require the reader to reconstruct it.

Check words such as if, unless, only, before, after, and until. Return by 10:00 sets a deadline; return after 10:00 describes something else. Confirmed only after acceptance is not equivalent to confirmed after sending. Read these small words slowly during the comparison. They often carry more operational meaning than the long terms that attract attention during a quick plain-language edit.

Be equally careful with and and or. Bring the order number and identification requests both items. Replacing and with or changes the instruction. If the source is unclear, ask the owner which relationship is intended. Do not solve an ambiguous policy by selecting whichever wording sounds easier. Your role as editor is to express an agreed instruction clearly, not to create a new instruction without approval.

Name the actor when responsibility matters. We will email your confirmation tells the customer who acts, while confirmation will be provided may leave the process vague. This is a human review of meaning and responsibility; the checker does not detect passive voice. A passive construction can still be appropriate when the actor is unknown or unimportant. Choose the form that serves the task without assigning responsibility to someone who does not actually hold it.

Order paragraphs around the questions people ask

Give each paragraph a clear job. The offer can come first, followed by collection and return, then equipment details and the booking condition. That order supports the decision to hire before asking for an action. Your exact order may differ if one condition is decisive for most readers. For example, an offer restricted to an existing customer group should identify that audience before inviting everyone else to make an enquiry.

Keep a condition beside the claim it limits. A separate sentence is often enough; a distant footnote may not be. If a screen costs extra, do not place a broad all-in-one promise above it. If a price applies only to a particular period, keep that period with the price. The task is not to hide complexity. It is to give necessary complexity a visible place where readers can understand it.

Make references clear across paragraph breaks. Replace this is included with the actual item name if several items have just been mentioned. Replace do that first with the specific action when the sequence matters. A reader may scan the middle of a post or return to it later. Clear nouns make that easier without repeating the entire offer in every sentence or adding a second introduction before each practical detail.

Use one next step that matches the reader decision. A booking request is different from a general enquiry, and both differ from a confirmed reservation. If a link supplies equipment details, describe that purpose near it and check the destination yourself. The checker does not open links. A separate caption draft can help you organize wording, but it cannot decide which business promise or approval process belongs in the final post.

Review facts, evidence, and certainty by hand

Read the revision once using only the fact record. Ignore style and compare names, amounts, units, dates, and conditions in order. Then read it again for implied promises. We aim to reply within two working days expresses a target. We reply within two working days can sound like a firm commitment. Removing aim may make the sentence tighter while making it less faithful to the approved service description.

Do not enlarge evidence during a simplification. Suppose a fictional support team recorded 18 replies within two working days among 24 requests in a trial week. Most trial requests received a reply within two working days keeps the limited setting visible if the figures support it. Customers always receive fast replies does not. Keep the sample, period, and measured activity attached to a claim when they materially affect what a reader can conclude.

Distinguish what is observed, planned, estimated, and guaranteed. A planned extra collection slot is not currently available. An estimate of running time is not a tested specification for every use. A reported customer preference is not proof of performance. Choose verbs that preserve those differences. If the source does not support a strong claim, ask for evidence or weaken the claim accurately; do not rely on the checker to identify the overstatement.

Check time references with the person responsible for scheduling. Today, tomorrow, and next Friday depend on when someone reads the post. A calendar date can be clearer for material that will remain visible. Include the appropriate time zone when the audience needs it. Do not invent a date just to complete an example. A clear placeholder in an internal draft should become a verified detail before the content is approved for publication.

Use mechanical findings to guide a second pass

Return to the readability checker after the meaning review. Keep the original and add your revision. Look first at the locations and excerpts for long sentences and dense paragraphs. Decide whether each passage mixes separate jobs or needs its current structure. The default thresholds are 25 and 80 words respectively, with flags only above the selected value. They are adjustable editing preferences, not requirements every post must satisfy.

Check emphasis without assuming it is wrong. Uppercase tokens of four or more letters may be acronyms or labels. Repeated question or exclamation marks may be intentional in a quotation. A single-case hashtag needs your own decision about its intended words and casing. The tool does not infer those words. Keep necessary identifiers and preserve a quote accurately unless you have a sound reason and permission to change it.

Do not use an English grade target as the definition of plain language. The optional formula feature is off by default and requires a suitable English sample with at least 100 eligible words and three sentences. It also checks the share of Latin-letter words, which is not language detection. A short hire notice may not qualify at all. That absence says nothing about whether the offer is useful or accurate.

Read the comparison as a record of text changes, not an assessment of quality. Removing the deposit sentence will reduce length, but it will also remove a condition. Adding an explanation of a necessary term may increase length and improve the practical answer. The tool does not understand either consequence. Approve the change because the revised text better serves the agreed task while preserving facts, not because a counter moves in a preferred direction.

Finish with a repeatable approval checklist

First, ask whether a reader can identify the offer and the next step without internal background. Then check every protected fact against the approved source. Finally, check relationships: which conditions apply to which claims, who acts, and when the arrangement becomes confirmed. These are three different questions. Answering them separately makes it easier to notice a fluent sentence that has retained all the numbers but changed what those numbers actually refer to.

Ask a colleague who has not seen the brief to explain the post back to you. For the hire example, ask what they would pay, when they would collect and return, what equipment is included, and when the booking becomes confirmed. Do not coach them toward the answer. A wrong interpretation points to a particular passage to revise. One informal check is useful evidence about that reading, not a guarantee for every audience.

Keep an approval record with the final text and the facts owner. If the price changes later, update every affected line rather than editing only the opening. Save a JSON project explicitly when you want to reopen the checker; there is no autosave. Use TXT for the actual draft and a report for review context. Keep private notes separate from material intended for publication so an internal question does not accidentally become customer-facing copy.

Review the finished post in its real destination. Line wrapping, media, link behavior, and assistive technology need checks beyond these words. This checklist does not certify accessibility or prove that a reader will understand everything. Its purpose is a dependable editorial habit: preserve the arrangement, explain it plainly, and give the next person an approved draft. Any later SMTasker account workflow is separate from this human review and does not happen through the checker.

Questions about Plain-Language Editing Checklist

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