5 Simple Tricks Anyone Can Use To Make Your Articles More Readable.
Every time you sit down to write an article for your newsletter, or any other marketing materials for that matter. Then you might want to consider the following ways to improve your content’s readability. Cos if we are all honest here, when you send out a newsletter then you want it to be read.
Use Specifics To Create Believability. The more real you can make something in the mind of your reader, the more likely they are to believe it. “Waves breaking over 200km of pristine coastline, untouched by man…” is more real in than “there is a beach…” Just leave some work for the reader’s imagination and you’ll have them hooked.
Make Your Paragraphs Shorter. Big long paragraphs, one after the other is really intimidating to read – which increases resistance from the reader to actually starting to read. Stephen King said in his book ‘On Writing’ that “the paragraph is the basic building block of a story.” So each time you write a paragraph, make sure that it is nothing more than a single building block in an article.
Doing more than that makes paragraphs way too long, makes your articles look too dense and it discourages readership. So keep them short – not looking like something a high school student churned out the night before their homework was due.
Break Up Pages With Subheads. Subheads are an easy way to make pages of bland boring text come to life. With the addition of a subhead or two on each page, you can simply break up large runs of text into multiple entry points into the article. Even a skimmer can pick up the points you are making quickly and easily.
Stick to One idea Per Article. If you look at the best sales letters of all time there is a bias towards a single idea. “Burn disease out of your body using nothing but the palm of your hand” or “The Black Plague of Debt” or “The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.” Those three headlines are from ‘Hall of Fame’ letters that were used successfully for many years. And if one idea is good enough for those letters then it is good enough for your articles.
Measure The Article’s Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease. Most adults read at between an 8th and 10th grade level. If what you are writing to is too complex, then they will just put it down. Nobody likes to be made to feel stupid. So avoid using big words the way you were taught to in school and keep your sentences shorter. Before you go decide the article is done – run it through the reading ease function in your word processor. Microsoft word has one, search ‘readability’ in the help centre for how to turn it on.
For those of you who are curious, this article has a reading ease 71.2% and is a 7.2 grade level.
The next time you wonder if what you have written is good enough go through and see how you can apply each of these tricks to your writing. Good Luck.