7 tips for online writing
How are you reading this post? Like you would a book or magazine? Probably not. I’ll bet you’re scanning.
You’re looking for what YOU want, and if you don't find it in a few seconds, you will scroll, click, or close.
I know that I need to write to the way you’re reading.
7 tips for writing online
“Front load” your sentences. Put the most important information at the front of your sentences, like I do in this list. Many users will read only the first half of the first sentence before jumping to the next paragraph or elsewhere on the page.
Use the active voice. (Change this: “There are a great number of hours wasted in the office by our team” to this: “Our team wastes too much time.”)
Put statements in positive form. (Change this: “He was not on time very often” to this: “He was usually late.”)
Use headers to get people to what they want quickly (like the bolded phrases in this list)
Use bulleted lists. People can scan lists much more quickly than paragraphs of text.
Rely on the descriptive power of verbs rather than adjectives. (“She sprinted” is more descriptive than “She ran fast.”)
Write to a 9th-grade level. (Simple & straightforward sentence and paragraph structures. I often write single-sentence paragraphs.)
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