A IN PLAIN WORDS case study

🔗 Live page

Who Do I Call?

📋 Sector

Public Safety

1. Context

The original “Who do I call?” page on the Toronto Police website was too long, too formal, and hard to read. The language was above most readers’ comfort level, and key instructions were buried in dense paragraphs. It also included two broken links, which made it harder for users to get the help they needed.

2. Challenge

• High reading level: averaged Grade 13.8 (some “post-graduate” passages)
• Passive voice: 38% of sentences indirect
• Dense text: many words with no headings or bullets
• No quick answer: users had to hunt for which number to call
• Broken links: two incorrect non-emergency URLs

3. Approach

• Metrics audit: measured grade, word count, and passive-voice ratio
• Answer first: moved “Call 9-1-1/416-808-2222” rules to the top
• Bullet structure: turned dense prose into concise lists
• Active voice: removed all passive constructions
• Readability tuning: rewrote for Grade 6–8 and confirmed with Flesch-Kincaid