Boost Readability For All Your Readers

Article Writing & Marketing Insights

Boost Readability For All Your Readers

Rate This Post: 1 Stars 2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars

2 Votes | Average: 2 out of 5 (2 votes, average: 2 out of 5)

EzineArticles Expert Author Priya Shah said this in her blog entry today:

There are two kinds of readers online – those who read an article in detail, and those who scan through it. For the sake of the latter, break up your articles into paragraphs, each of which makes a point, and use a title for the paragraph that effectively sums up the points you made in the text.

Write a catchy title for each paragraph. Keep your paragraphs short. Long riffs are difficult to read online. I usually prefer a maximum of 2 to 3 sentences per paragraph, but longer is acceptable. The use of bulleted points and numbered lists also boosts readability.

Perfect timing Priya!

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on December 18, 2006 at 2:15 pm

Views 594 |

11 Comments »

Priya Shah writes:

Thanks, Chris! That was quick. I think hardly a few minutes had elapsed between my posting that and your picking it up. More power to blogs! :-)

Comment provided December 18, 2006 at 2:38 pm

Edward Weiss writes:

This whole article “how to” thing is starting to bug me. Most “authors” who post to EA are NOT professional writers. Having said that, why try to be. Just write from the heart on a topic you know and brain dump 300-400 words. Then edit. Or not.

Not too complicated.

Comment provided December 18, 2006 at 4:44 pm

Lance Winslow writes:

We need to be careful not to confuse folks, I am beginning to align myself with Edward’s last thought here. I have written articles that are 1500 to 3000 works, articles that were 201 words before the mandatory 250 word rule. Currently I like the 350 range, as it gives me an opportunity to complete a thought and enough juice to be fair to the reader. That seems to work well without being too long to not be picked up by Blogs or Ezine Publishers who just want a short article to fill a spot.

I am NOT a professional writer even though I have sold my works and co-authored a book, and have some other eBooks online and I agree that most of the 40,000 article authors here are not professional writers either. Try to keep it simple, use good judgement, edit and post. If you can have someone else read it and ask them if they get it first. If so post and go to the next.

Comment provided December 18, 2006 at 5:47 pm

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Priya,

Not to mention you are on the other side of the planet!

You’re one of the very few marketers that I follow for best practices…in practice, meaning, I like that you keep changing your approach and you keep taking massive action. :-)

Comment provided December 18, 2006 at 8:04 pm

Kathleen Gage writes:

Excellent points, Priya. But then again, you always have great insights that others can greatly benefit from.

Kathleen Gage

Comment provided December 18, 2006 at 8:28 pm

Waheed Elqalatawy writes:

Priya is one of the professional marketers online, and the odd thing about her is that she is one of the few exceptionally honest people in that field.
Thanks Priya, Thanks Chris.

Comment provided December 19, 2006 at 12:25 am

Anand writes:

Hi ! Priya,

Your Comments are very useful for New publishers…

Comment provided December 19, 2006 at 12:35 am

Maus Yoshida writes:

Priya,

Thank you for your good comment.

Although I tried to write articles into a few paragraphs of 2-3 sentences in Japanese, I have never consider about give them each titles.

I myself sometimes scan many blog articles, I feel it attractive to sum and highlight each paragraph essnce by titling.

Thanks again

Comment provided December 20, 2006 at 12:57 am