In this masterclass the speakers will present the findings from academic research recently undertaken by the University of Nottingham in conjunction with law firm Browne Jacobson, from both a legal and linguistic perspective.

The research found that:

• 80% of the wordings reviewed required at least undergraduate or postgraduate education levels to be meaningfully understood
• only 55% of comprehension questions about coverage were answered correctly
• all policies reviewed contained a high number of ‘low-frequency’ (i.e. uncommonly used) words
• overly-complex sentence structures were prevalent throughout the wordings
• by making changes to the way in which the wordings were drafted, it was possible in some cases to reduce the reading age by more than 10 years.

During the session, the speakers will:

• identify some drafting tips that have been found to decrease reading age estimates
• critique and redraft an existing policy clause, applying some of the findings from the academic stud