Master Class grads boost readability by up to 300%
One of my favorite parts of my Catch Your Reader Master Class is our Cut Through the Clutter smackdown.… Read the full article
Readability
What would Hemingway do?
Find out with this app
Ever wonder how Ernest Hemingway, the master of tight prose, would have handled your annual report?
Now you can find out.… Read the full article
How readable should emails be?
Aim for the 3rd-grade reading level
How easy should email newsletters and e-blasts be to read? Very easy, according to a study of more than 40 million emails by Boomerang.… Read the full article
How short should sentences be?
‘The 25-word rule isn’t bad as long as you don’t follow it’
How short should sentences be? Ask the experts:
A “53-word sentence feels like my junk drawer — too much information crammed into too small a space.”
— Publication coach Daphne Gray-Grant
“For readable writing that doesn’t tax your readers, vary your sentence length, seek an average in the low 20s, and cut any sentence of 45 words or more.”
— Wayne Schiess, senior lecturer at The David J.
… Read the full articleHow long should sentences be?
American Press Institute correlates sentence length, comprehension
How long should sentences be? A better question might be: How much of your piece do you want your readers to understand?… Read the full article
Short sentences boost readability
Nearly 140 years of research proves it
Here’s the problem with long sentences: Every time you add a word, you reduce comprehension. Add another one, reduce it even further.… Read the full article
Move from event to impact
Focus news stories on MOI
Screenwriter Nora Ephron long remembered the first day of her high school journalism class.
Ephron’s teacher announced the first assignment: to write the lead for a story to appear in the student newspaper.… Read the full article
Doctor’s orders: Make it a feature release
Physician association finds a cure for the pyramid
Too many communicators married the inverted pyramid when they were 19, have made a lot of triangular babies and have remained monogamous for all these years.… Read the full article
The 1-minute news release
Can you get your story across in 200 words?
Tick tock.
In the time it takes you to wash your hands, buckle your seat belt or start the dishwasher, your favorite journalist can finish reading your news release.… Read the full article
Stop We-We-ing on the reader
Talking about ourselves — better than sex?
It feels so good to talk about ourselves.
Talking about yourself activates the same pleasure centers in the brain as food, money or sex, according to Harvard neuroscientist Diana Tamir and her colleague Jason Mitchell, whose research on the topic was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.… Read the full article