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?
Cut Through the Clutter in PR
How long should your press release or other PR piece be? Your headline? Your lead?
Learn “the numbers” you need to measurably improve your readability at NOT Your Father’s PR Writing — our PR-writing workshop starting July 12.
There, you’ll learn to write a one-minute release (Journalists rarely spend longer reviewing releases).
You’ll find out how to measurably improve readability. (PR pros in our press release workshops have improved readability by up to 300% with our cool — free! — tool.)
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.
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