The reading level of most Americans

You're probably not writing credit card agreements, but this tells you something.


Credit card agreements are written on average at a 12th grade reading level, making them not understandable to four out of five adults, according to a CreditCards.com analysis of all the agreements offered by major card issuers in the United States.

The average American adult reads at a ninth-grade level and readability experts recommend important information -- such as credit card agreements -- be written at that level

"Credit card contracts and other such documents are written in dense prose for a reason: So that the customer will NOT be able to understand it," notes Roy Peter Clark, a national expert on writing and a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. "I may be cynical, but I don't think their writing strategies are accidental, the collateral damage of a bureaucratic mindset. I think those writers know exactly what they are doing."

"Experts advise that anything for the public should be written at the ninth grade level," William DuBay, an author and readability consultant says. "If it's about health and safety, it should be written on the fifth grade level."