Polish your paragraphs
Encourage readership by making them tight
When researchers for The Poynter Institute looked into what makes people read online, they found that one key predictor of attention was paragraph length. Researchers wrote:
“The bottom line is that stories with shorter paragraphs got more than twice as many overall eye fixations than those with longer paragraphs. These data suggest that the longer-paragraph format discourages reading and that short-paragraph format overwhelmingly encourages reading.”
Are your paragraphs too long? Here are three ways to make them tighter:
1. Hit return more often.
This may be the easiest single thing you can do to cut the clutter in your copy.
I know, I know. Your third-grade teacher taught you that paragraphs were one unit of thought. They are. Just as your entire piece covers one idea, your sentences are units of thought, your words each express a single idea — heck, even the syllables each convey a concept.
You just need to see your thoughts as smaller, more discrete units. David A. Fryxell, former editor of Writer’s Digest, recommends that you hit return when you need to:
- Pause
- Elaborate
- Change topic
- Make an aside
- Present a quote
- Shift time or place
- Emphasize a key point
- Explain a subsidiary idea
- Offer an opposing viewpoint
- Change the rhythm of your piece
- Move to the next item on your list
Great guidelines. But the only real rule is that you place your curser after a period before you hit return.
2. Tweak it.
Look for ways to shorten your paragraph by cutting sentences, phrases and words.
3. Break it with bullets.
If you have a series of three or more items, break them out of the paragraph in a bulleted or numbered list. Bullets not only break up a paragraph, but they also cut words by eliminating the need for transitions.
That’s especially important online, where readers skim even more than they do in print. In one test, usability expert Jakob Nielsen made a webpage 47 percent more usable when he made the page more scannable with subheads, bold-faced lead-ins and bullets.
The Times is no fluffball news outlet. Can’t you make your paragraphs as inviting as the Times?
Cut Through the Clutter
Is your copy easy to read? According to communication experts, that’s one of the two key questions people ask to determine whether to read a piece — or toss it.
Fortunately, academics have tested and quantified what makes copy easy to read. Unfortunately, that research virtually never makes it out of the ivory tower and into the hands of writers who could actually apply it.
At Cut Through the Clutter — a two-day concise-writing master class on April 17-18, 2018 in New York — you’ll learn “the numbers” you need to measurably improve your copy’s readability.Specifically, you’ll learn:
- How long is too long: For your paragraphs? Your sentences? Your words?
- Three ways to shorten your copy — and which is the most effective way.
- How to avoid causing your reader to skip your paragraphs.
- A tool you can use (you already have it, but you might not know it) to quantifiably improve your copy’s readability.
- A seven-step system for making your copy clearer and more concise.
Learn more about the Master Class.
Browse all upcoming Master Classes.Would you like to hold an in-house Cut Through the Clutter workshop? Contact Ann directly.
With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any problems of plagorism
or copyright violation? My website has a lot of unique content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my authorization. Do you know any methods
to help protect against content from being stolen? I’d certainly appreciate it.
We haven’t had much trouble, Jual, but when we do, I have a lawyer whose kids have all gone to Harvard on the copyright violators. Good luck