One thing I have noticed recently, while reading through blogs, that I haven’t seen anyone yet mention is the size of a paragraph and that some blogs have paragraphs that are so long that I just don’t want to read them.
Something that I did realize a long time ago is that in order to keep a reader and make it easy for that reader to read your story, blog post, etc. is to write small, and to the point, paragraphs.
By having small paragraphs you provide them with a sense of achievement as they conquer each one. Also small paragraphs make it easy for your reader to process the information and retain it.
I’m not suggesting that small paragraphs is always the way to go, but when a reader is not sure if s/he wants to read your content, larger paragraphs make it daunting. That’s because once they start they can’t stop half-way through. And if they don’t understand, they will need to re-read the paragraph.
How many times have you been reading then realized at the bottom of the page that you weren’t paying attention, and so had to start again. I usually go up one paragraph at a time to see if I recognize it and if not, go back one at a time until I recognize the last spot knew what was going on.
I find that small paragraphs are the way to go when you need to attract a reader who’s not sure if s/he wants to read your material. So write small. Keep it simple.
3 responses so far ↓
nymeria87 // May 3, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Word
Don // May 3, 2008 at 9:05 pm
LOL!!!!
hamengku // May 3, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more!
When I come across a post that looks interesting, I’ll scroll through it first to see how it’s structured. If there are long paragraphs and the length of the post itself is long, then I’ll move on to something else; my attention has already been lost.
When writing my posts, I keep the length of my paragraphs in mind. They’re usually fives lines or less, six at the very most.
Thank you for writing what needed to be “said.” I only hope that more bloggers do the same!
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