Hit Return more often

People skip long paragraphs

Readers take measure of — and make decisions about — your copy based on how it looks. One of the most important visual cues is paragraph length.

If your message looks too hard to read, people won’t read it. So hit Return more often: It’s one of the easiest ways to make your message more readable.

How often should you hit Return?

We turned to The New York Times to find out how long their paragraphs are. We analyzed 99 stories in a recent issue of The New York Times. (We skipped the sports pages.)

On this day, the Times’ average paragraph length averaged 36 words and weighed in at a median of 37 words.

The Times is no fluffball news outlet. Can’t you make your paragraphs as inviting as the Times?