Writing articles? Leave 'breathing room'

One of the best ways to show people that you're an expert is to write articles and post them online.

If you want to make them easy to read (besides using good grammar and conversational language) make sure that you don't post a block of dense text. That's very hard on the eyes, and most people won't make the effort to read it.

Give your text 'breathing room' by breaking it up into short paragraphs.

Here's an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland, presented as a solid block of text:

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well. Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled “ORANGE MARMALADE,” but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

Here's the same excerpt, but broken up into paragraphs. Notice how much easier it is to read:

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.

First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs.

She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled “ORANGE MARMALADE,” but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

Eye-tracking studies show that short paragraphs are more likely to be read than long paragraphs.

And what about text size? Surprisingly, if your text font is very large, people will tend to scan rather than read.


Pauline