Writing to be read

Ideally, your readers will have nothing better to do than sit back and read every word you have written. More likely, they will just scan your document.

Some readers may look for specific information in tables and graphs. Others may peruse the pages for illustrations or read the executive summary. If you want them to read more, you will have to grab and keep their attention. To do this, you must know who your readers are and how they read. If you followed this guide so far, you already know who they are. Now you must write specifically for them.

You write because you want to get a message across to your readers. If they stop reading, your mission has failed. This means that you must keep the reader’s attention. Your text must be inviting enough to keep your reader captivated and the reader should not be challenged unnecessarily.

Clear writing is strong, plain and concise. Otherwise the reader may go elsewhere to get the information more quickly. Clarity does not come from simple ideas, but from presenting ideas in the simplest form that the subject permits.

Ideal sentences have no more than eight words. Most people find an average of over 20 words per sentence hard to follow. As for paragraphs, huge blocks of print look formidable and may therefore not be read willingly. Worse, readers may lose their way in them. On the other hand, too many short paragraphs in quick succession can be distracting.

Good writing varies sentence and paragraph length.