Quality Control for Security Awareness Newsletters

The quality of our products is an expression of respect for our customers.

Clear and logical writing is essential to sharing security awareness messages in any form: newsletters, courses, brochures, tip sheets, and other documents.

A minimum of three people (the writer, an editor, and a technical content reviewer) review our written materials before we send a draft to the customer.

Why We Have Different Writers, Editors, and Reviewers

It's too easy for the writer, who is close to the project, to miss tiny errors. The writer overlooks these "blind spot" errors because she knows what the document is supposed to say.

Aoccdrnig to rseerach at Cmabirgde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat lteter be at the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Writing Quality Checklist

The reading grade level is 9^th grade or below.
The readability level is 40 percent or higher.
Less than five percent of sentences are passive.
Passive: Procedures were written to reduce errors and omissions.
Active: The security officer wrote procedures to reduce errors and omissions.
Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage are correct.
Grandma can understand the language used in our newsletters. (We have a grandmother on staff who reviews the newsletters.)
Sentence length, sentence structure, headings, capitalization, use of acronyms, and lists are consistent.
Organization and logic are correct.
Paragraphs break logically by discrete thoughts.
Inanimate objects do not have actions or responsibilities. Only persons and entities can experience, see, or be responsible for an action.
The security training plan ensures... (a plan cannot ensure)
The program is suffering from a lack of management support... (a program cannot suffer)
Transitions are smooth and not jarring.
Clear or compelling headings and subheads organize the content.
Vivid examples support ideas.
Excessive adjectives and adverbs go to the modifier recycling plant.
Terminology is consistent throughout the document or course.
Series contain the final comma (e.g., lions, tigers, and bears).
Our goal is to have no more than ten acronyms appear frequently throughout a document. Acronyms are explained when they first appear.
Common confusables, such as "it's" and "its," are verified.
Page elements – layout, fonts, spacing, and graphics - are consistent, legible, and pleasing to the eye.

Sensitivity

Our writers do not talk down to readers. We avoid these expressions in our materials:

It's evident that...
It's obvious that...
Obviously...

We use a variety of genders, races, and ages in graphics that show people.

For International Customers

When writing for international customers, we avoid using American idioms. Using terms like "in a nutshell," "half the battle," or "drop a line" can lead to misunderstanding and confusion for international customers.

Editing Can Be Fun

To get our brains to process the words and not the sentences, we read the material backwards or upside down. (This burns more calories than reading it from start to finish.)

To catch errors we might not otherwise find, we also read the material out loud or have our computers read it to us (text reading programs often used by the vision-impaired do this).

Here are some ways to omit needless words.

Too Many Words	Taut Wording
added bonus	bonus
advance planning	planning
at this point in time	now
be deficient in	lack
both of these	both
due to the fact that	because
for the purpose of	for, to
free gift	gift
general public	public
in close proximity	near
in order to	to
in the event that	if
is capable of	can
make a decision	decide
make an assumption	assume
mutual agreement	agreement
near miss	near hit
on a daily basis	daily
past experience	experience
past history	history
subsequent to	after
take action	act
through the use of	through
utilize, utilization	use
with the exception of	except for

Another View Of Quality

I consider a bad bottle of Heineken to be a personal insult to me.
— Freddy Heineken, founder of Dutch beer giant

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