Longer stories lose readers faster
Size does matter.
Everything else being equal, your readers would rather read a short piece than a long piece.
Of course, all things are never really equal. Given more space, you can do a better job of making your copy more valuable and entertaining, which encourages readership.
But everything else being equal, your readers prefer a short piece to a long piece.
Here’s evidence that readers want less:
The shorter the story, the more they read.
The longer the story, the more quickly readers stop reading.
That was one of the findings the “father of communication studies,” Wilbur Schramm, made in this 1947 study of newspaper readers.
For the study, he interviewed 1,050 readers about what they read, how much and why they stopped.
He found that:
- A nine-paragraph-long story lost three out of 10 readers by the fifth paragraph.
- A shorter story lost only two.
Bottom line: Length itself affects readability.
Cut Through the Clutter
When you make your writing easier to read, your audience members will read it faster, understand it better and enjoy it more.
Master a seven-step system for making every piece you write easier to read and understand at Catch Your Readers — an online persuasive-writing workshop on Oct. 5-9.You’ll learn how to avoid causing your reader to skip your paragraphs … how long is too long for sentences that are easy to understand … tricks you can steal from Shakespeare, Lincoln and Churchill for rallying readers with your words … and a free tool you can use to measure readability.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.
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Source: William H. DuBay, Readers, Readability, and the Grading of Text (PDF), Impact Information (Costa Mesa, California), 2007
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