Accessible CSR communication

Accessible texts are texts that are easy to understand because they take into consideration the needs, the preferences, and the goals of the reader.

For this reason, if you want to make a text accessible, you need to ask yourself some important questions about the reader, such as What do they want to know? Is this a complex topic for them? What is their reading ability? Is the text easy to follow? Is the text engaging? 

Based on the answers to these questions, you might have to make revisions to your text. For example, you might have to add explanations for complex terms, split long sentences, add connectives, add some visual features, or remove irrelevant information.

Of course, not all readers are the same. What is accessible for one group (for example, a group of medical doctors) might be less accessible for another group (for example, a group of patients).

In the following part of this course, we are going to focus on the revisions that you can make to a text having a specific reader in mind: someone who is not an expert of a topic, who has limited reading ability, and who is just interested in the gist of a text.

If your reader is a lay person (that is, someone who is not an expert of a topic or of a domain), he or she will find specialised words difficult to understand. Think, for example, of a customer who tries to understand business terms such as “debt service coverage ratio” or “equity financing”. If a text contains several specialised words, the entire understanding of the text can be compromised.

When dealing with specialised/difficult words, you have two revision options:

1.  replacing the specialised/difficult words with easier-to-understand versions
2.  adding an explanation for the specialised/difficult words

Generally speaking, shorter words (for example, “cat” or “house”) are more common and, therefore, easier to understand. However, this is not always true! Think, for instance, of difficult short words such as “lithium”, or of unclear abbreviations, such as “PA”. So, shorter is not alwasy better! Make sure you use your own judgment as a writer.

Readers find it difficult to understand long and complex sentences, especially if they have limited reading ability (for instance, if the text is written in a foreign language or if they have few years of schooling).

Generally, difficult sentences are sentences that contain more than 25 words. When you encounter these sentences in a text, you can adopt one or both of these revision strategies:

1.  splitting the sentence into two;
2.  rewriting the sentence

Below is an example of sentence splitting and rewriting. The sentence has been taken from a corporate report:

Original sentence: To further guide our human rights actions and practice due diligence in our approach to human rights, we collaborated with an NGO on a strategy which allows us to identify and evaluate existing and potential human rights risks across production chains and global networks.

Revised sentences: In collaboration with an NGO, we have developed a strategy to guide our approach to human rights. Thanks to this strategy, we will analyse our production chains and our global networks to identify existing and potential risks for human rights.

You will notice that, in addition to splitting the original sentence into two, we have also rearranged some information.

In addition to the length of a sentence, some of its structures can also be difficult to understand. An example is passive voice. With passive voice, sometimes it is not clear who did what. For example, if a text says “The payment was received”, the reader does not know who received the payment. Did the payment reach the right person? Replace passice voice with active voice, especially when you need to attribute responsibility for some actions to a specific person or group.

Cohesion refers to how well connected the different parts of a text are.

Highly cohesive texts contain logical/temporal/and causal connectives (for example, “because” or “after”) that clarify the relationships among sections, paragraphs, sentences, and so on. Highly cohesive texts also avoid ambiguities and contain repetitions of words and ideas so that the reader is always reminded of the topic (and the sub-topics) of a text. Have a look at this example of a very cohesive text, containing connectives and repetitions.

Non-cohesive texts lack these qualities and make it difficult for the reader to build the mental representation of the text that is needed for comprehension.

When you encounter a non-cohesive text, you might have to apply one, some, or all of the revisions listed below:

1.  repeting words (and ideas);
2.  adding connectives between sentences;
3.  avoiding ambiguities 

For instance, the sentence “this is interesting” might be ambiguous because the reader does not know what “this” refers to. Instead, if you write “this book is interesting”, the reader immediately knows what you are talking about.

Please be aware that some of the changes that are needed to increase text cohesion will inevitably make your sentence longer, so you will need to find a balance between cohesion and sentence length/structure. Sometimes, it is worth making your sentence longer in order to clarify the links between the sentences. Again, use your own judgment as a writer.

The visual aspects of a text (that is, its graphics, spatial display, or typography) can also influence its level of accessibility. For example, when you highlight a word or a sentence in bold, you are immediately letting the reader know that that word or sentence contains a key message. Or again, when you are splitting your text using a bulleted or numbered list, you are helping the reader “digest” the information in small chunks.

At least once in our lives, we have all had to deal with a text that was a long and dense piece of writing. Think, for example, of the terms and conditions of your health insurance. It was pretty frustrating, wasn’t it?

To avoid frustrating your reader, there are different ways in which you can improve the visual aspects of your text. You can:

1. use (bulleted/numbered) lists;
2.  highlight headings and key words or sentences;
3.  use sub-headings;
4. use white spaces to separate paragraphs and sections;
5.  align your text to the left;
6.  avoid writing in all capitals or italics;
7. use images to complement the written text.

What is relevant and what is irrelevant in a text depends on the goal of the reader. For instance, if the reader’s goal is to assemble a piece of furniture, he/she will find the assembly instructions relevant, while the history of the company who built that piece of furniture will probably appear irrelevant to them.

Texts that contain a lot of irrelevant content can overwhelm and frustrate the reader. Imagine, for example, how you would feel if you had to to scroll through 5 or 10 pages of a document before finding what you are looking for.

Once you have identified the goal of your reader, there are two revision strategies that you can use, that is:

1.  summarisation of irrelevant content
2.  deletion of irrelevant content.

Broadly speaking, CSR is the commitment of corporations to behave ethically and to take care of their employees, the larger communities, and the environment. In order to be socially responsible, companies should make social, environmental, ethical, human rights, and consumer concerns a part of their core business operations. 

For example, with regard to the environment, companies can take several actions to ensure that their conduct is ethical and responsible. For instance, they can plant a tree for each product sold, cut down on plastic use, or invest in renewable energy.

As far as communities are concerned, socially responsible companies often provide training opportunities for young people. They can also invest in cultural events or share resources to tackle diseases, as we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the workplace too, socially responsible companies can take various initiatives, such as encouraging diversity or offering their employees opportunities for career growth and development.

Up until recent years, companies have regarded sustainability and social progress as obstacles to profitability, and they have tried to find a balance between CSR engagement and economic success. However, currently there is a growing awareness among companies that profitability and societal needs go hand in hand, and that they can be brought together in order to create shared value. This awareness comes from the observation that it is not just economic needs that define the markets, but also societal and environmental needs.

Companies’ engagement with CSR is receiving more and more attention. Multiple stakeholders (such as investors, customers, the media, or non-governmental organisations) seek information on how committed companies are to social responsibility. With regard to customers, for example, this type of information can influence their purchase decisions and their loyalty to a company.

Regarded as the basis of stakeholders’ participation and ethical business practices, CSR communication should be both comprehensible and honest. In relation to this point, scholars have often claimed that CSR is an ethically grounded form of discourse.

Companies have multiple channels at their disposal (e.g. reports, social media, and corporate websites) in order to communicate about their socially responsible activities. Each of these channels has a specific language, style, and format. In the next sub-section, we are going to focus in particular on corporate reports and on the language that is used in these documents.

*PLanTra MC Inc. that we use as an example is a fictitious company.

The language and the visual features of corporate reports can vary a lot depending on the company. However, in general, corporate reports have shown low accessibility, especially when they are written by companies that do not engage much with social responsibility. These companies tend to use difficult language as a way to “hide” their lack of socially responsible activities.

Let’s look at this extract of a corporate report dealing with CSR and, more specifically, with the health and well-being of employees. Take a moment to read it.

If you have read/watched the previous section on accessible communication, you have probably already noticed the characteristics that we are going to highlight in this extract:

• The visual aspects have not been considered. This text is a dense piece of writing without images and without any special formatting (such as bold or italic) that could get the reader’s attention;
• Sentences tend to be long and complex. For instance, the first sentence contains 39 words;
• There are abbreviations (e.g. ISO and OHS) that would be difficult to understand for somebody from outside the business world;
• The text also lacks cohesion. It is not clear what the various initiatives mentioned in the text have in common;
• There is some information that a reader such as customer might find irrelevant. For instance, he/she might not be interested in who is responsible for what within a company.

Having seen this example from a corporate report, it is not surprising that customers have a preference for other channels (such as social media and corporate websites), where they can find more accessible and engaging CSR content. Keep reading (or watching) to learn more about CSR content on corporate websites.

*PLanTra MC Inc. that we use as an example is a fictitious company.

As is the case with reports, corporate websites too vary a lot in the language and in the visual features that they use when describing socially responsible activities. However, in general, CSR content on corporate websites is more engaging and accessible than CSR content found in reports.

As an example, let’s look at the website of Tony’s Chocolonely, a Dutch chocolate company that is well-known for its social responsibility. In particular, they oppose child labour and slavery. Take a moment to look at this screenshot of their website.

You will notice that this website post on the problem of price in the chocolate chain follows the principles of accessible communication that we have introduced in the previous section. Specifically:

• The visual aspects are very prominent. The image on the side visually summarises the idea of a chocolate chain, from beans to bars. Furthermore, there is a heading in bold formatting and in a larger font;
• The sentences are short and simple (as short as six words);
• The vocabulary is quite basic;
• This website post is also cohesive thanks to the repetition of some words (e.g. “cocoa” and “chocolate”) and the use of connectives (e.g. “as a result”);
• The post is very short and contains limited information. If a customer finds it relevant to their reading goal, they can click on “tell me more”. Otherwise, he/she can keep strolling without being overwhelmed by irrelevant content.

Now, imagine that you work in the communication department of a company and your boss asks you to take content from a CSR report and to convert it into a website post that needs to get the attention of customers. How can you do that? Move on to the next video to find out.

*Using specific companies as examples does not represent endorsement.