Why sensitivity reading matters

Sensitivity reading, also called diversity reading, is a topic that’s often misrepresented these days in publishing. Contrary to what some believe (and what some sensationalist news pieces claim), a sensitivity reader doesn’t exist to make your work “politically correct” or to impose their own political views on you as a writer. Sensitivity readers are important because they’re there to help you make sure your work conveys something outside of your own experience without falling into harmful stereotypes, stigmatising language, and so on.

So what does a sensitivity reader do? As someone who has provided this service before, and who still reads for a couple of topics by word of mouth, I thought it’d be useful to do a deep-dive.

In short, a sensitivity reader will read your work and look at a certain type of representation, be it race, disability, culture, health, sexuality, and so on. The reader will have experience of whatever topic they’re reading for, and can help guide the author in writing about an unfamiliar subject.

It’s just like hiring a police officer to read over your crime novel for accuracy, except this type of reader focuses on diversity.

Why sensitivity reading is important and how it can help you

If you’re writing about a topic you know little about (for example, say you have a disabled character, but you don’t experience that disability yourself), sensitivity readers can help you avoid stereotypes and bias in your writing. They can keep an eye out for potentially damaging content and language, inaccuracies, and false or misleading information.

It’s not about censoring you!

A sensitivity reader exists to help and educate you so that you can get it right. They can help your book to be accurate, without unnecessary stereotyping or harm. Books can influence the way people think and view the world and that includes certain groups of people.

Now, this isn’t to say that writers who write within their experience don’t need sensitivity readers either. We all experience the world differently, so it’s also an option for an author to consider a range of viewpoints, even they do have direct experience of their subject.

What kinds of things does sensitivity reading look at?

This really depends on the reader and what the author is looking for. Sometimes a reader specialises in one thing, such as mental health, or their niche might be narrower – focusing on, say, anxiety or depression. It really depends on their own personal experiences and what they’re comfortable with looking at.

The list of topics covered by sensitivity readers is vast! Gender, sexuality, mental health, race, disability, politics, class… the list goes on!

Sometimes a sensitivity read can be genre dependent, too! I personally read for women’s/feminist issues in fantasy all the time. These days it’s become a regular habit for me to read for female representation, particularly in genres dominated by male writers who might need help writing from a female perspective, and about female characters.

How exactly does the process work?

As you can imagine, every reader will work differently. But generally, it’s quite similar to a basic critique. The reader will look at the manuscript critically, giving feedback to the author, but it will be limited to the subject/s they’re being hired to look at.

The reader will submit an editorial letter or report to the author covering what the writer is doing well and any issues that could be addressed.

Sometimes readers are hired to do line-by-line editing, usually for publishing houses. This might involve fact-checking and highlighting any words or terms that may be inaccurate or misused.

What to do with feedback from a sensitivity reader

As with any type of writing critique, it’s helpful to step back for a while after reading your reader’s notes. With time and distance, you’ll be better equipped to carefully consider each point without making knee-jerk emotional decisions.

Remember, your reader won’t tell you what to do. They’re there to advise you as best they can and the final choices are yours. Recently, in publishing, sensitivity readers have often come under fire for either a) angering an author, who thinks they’re being made to make their work “too PC”, or b) not “doing enough” to make sure a topic is handled well in a book. Rather unfairly, it seems these readers can’t win no matter what they do! Sensitivity readers can’t be held accountable for the outcome or response to any book because ultimately, choices are made by the author, and all readers respond differently.

Sensitivity readers a great benefit to authors, with the right aims in mind. They’re there to help an author improve their work, with a view to being respectful to all groups of people.

That’s something that, speaking as a writer myself, we should all be aiming for.

Further resources

This is by no means an exhaustive list (otherwise we’d be here forever), but these are a few of my favourite resources on inclusive and conscious language.