How to make forms easier to read

Reading time: Less than 2 minutes

Do you ever encounter forms that are tough to read? It’s not your fault! The fault usually lies with the organization that developed the form…

Is there anything more onerous than filling out government or bank documents? (I think not.) A neighbour reminded me of this issue recently, when he commented that he and his wife had difficulty filling out some “survivor benefit” forms, following his wife’s recent retirement.

I asked him to send me the link so I could see the troublesome words for myself. Whoa Nelly! They are confusing. Here are the two items in the text that especially befuddled my neighbour (who’s no dummy — he holds an engineering degree and a senior position at a global communications company.)

2.  Being the “spouse” of the member or former member means that (check one, if applicable, or go on to paragraph 3.)

                  I am married to the member or former member, and have not been living separate and apart from    that person for the preceding two years

                  I have been living with the member or former member, as husband and wife, for the preceding 2 years, or

                  I am the same gender as, and have been living with, the member or former member in a mar- riage like relationship for the preceding 2 years.

3.  Being the “surviving spouse”of the member or former member means that (check one, if applicable)

                 I was married to the member or former member, and had not been living separate and apart

from that person for the two years preceding the date of death,

                 I had been living with the member or former member, as husband or wife, for the 2 years

immediately preceding the date of death, or

                 I am the same gender as, and had been living with, the member or former member in a marriage like relationship for the 2 years immediately preceding the date of death.

When I read these questions, I was as puzzled as my neighbour. It struck me that you might need to be a lawyer — or, at the very least, a benefits consultant — to be able to make any sense of them. When preparing this document, the authors — the Pensions Department of the Financial Institutions Commission of British Columbia — obviously committed at least one grievous error. They failed to test it on at least a dozen people from different walks of life. Doing so would have revealed the common misunderstandings that inevitably arise and would have led to rewriting.

Further, I’m guessing they failed to hire a copy editor. It’s important to know that this kind of “simple” fill-in-the-blank type of document is anything but simple. It requires a great deal of work to make it easy to understand.

Editing is not expensive. You can get a good copy editor for about $50/hour, often less. I’m not saying this to drum up jobs for myself; I don’t do this kind of work. If you want to find a copy editor, look here. And if you think that’s too expensive for you, then calculate the cost of correcting the inevitable mistakes that will have arisen from this hard-to-read document…

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