Summary

The article provides five underrated writing techniques to make content more readable and engaging for readers.

Abstract

The article emphasizes the importance of making writing easily skimmable for readers, suggesting that if a text is not quickly comprehensible, readers are likely to abandon it. To enhance readability, the author recommends enlarging text for key points, using bold formatting to highlight important information, incorporating images to break up text and maintain interest, summarizing content for quick consumption, and using italics for emotional emphasis. These techniques are presented as effective methods for capturing and retaining reader attention, ultimately making writing more accessible and enjoyable.

Opinions

The author believes that readers prefer content that is straightforward and easy to digest, avoiding long, dense paragraphs.
Using visual elements like images is seen as crucial for maintaining reader engagement.
Summarizing articles allows readers to quickly grasp the main points, which may encourage them to return for a more thorough read.
The strategic use of text formatting—such as enlarging, bolding, or italicizing—adds variety and clarity, enhancing the overall reading experience.
The author suggests that these writing techniques, while seemingly minor, significantly impact the article's success in capturing reader interest and retention.

5 Underrated Techniques That Will Make Your Writing Easier To Read

If the reader can’t skim, you’re done for.

I just ate my breakfast and had a light Netflix binge of Euphoria. Now it’s time for me to do some reading. What should I read today?

*Goes online*

Let me read this long-ass line of text that isn’t really saying anything and says a whole bunch of nothing with no substance and is one huge run-on sentence that keeps going on and on forever until the end of time until I start pulling out my hair and counting how many fingernails I bit off just to get through the whole thing and the worst part about it is I’m still reading it right now and — [takes a deep breath in] — God I’m tired.

Sorry, I could make this longer but I want to give your eyes a break for a second so I enlarged this part.

Here’s what a long wall of homogenous text will do.

*Clicks off the article and won’t read it ever again*

Let me see what else is there to read. Maybe a nice listicle that will show me five productivity techniques to help me get more work done. There are tons of those so why not?

*Pulls up article*

Beginning: When I was a little girl, I loved roses and call of duty. I didn’t like how my life was so wasteful. I also like drinking chocolate milk and making pancakes. Also, what about this weather? I know you want to hear me talk about that so let me tell you how it’s been so far for me real quick……yadda, yadda, yadda…The purpose of this article is to show you how these five productivity tips helped me get off an alcohol addiction that I’ve struggled with for years.

Ding ding ding! The writing in bold always wins. Cut all the other bullshit.

What if we left that long soliloquy as it stands? Guess what the reader will do now.

*Clicks off the article and won’t read it ever again*

I want to read an article about finance today. Go figure. Let’s see if there are some helpful articles online. Damnit. There’s a finance article that seems great to read. It has an amazing title and a mouth-watering intro that grabbed me in two seconds. Too bad it’s 12 minutes long. Bummer. Oh, wait!

Now that’s a great picture to keep me going. Thanks to whoever wrote this!

Let’s see what’s hot on the web to read today. Internet, don’t fail me now. I have to go to work in two minutes so let’s see if I can read something short and sweet.

You know what? I don’t have time for all of that so let me just skip to the bottom and see all of the main points summarized by the author.

*Scrolls down*

Conclusion: I just want to say thank you guys so much for reading this article. It means a lot to me. I feel like I just graduated high school so I’m going to give you this corny speech as a token of appreciation. Bye.

Wtf?

Okay, let’s try that again.

Final Thought

Okay guys, here are the main takeaways I want you to get from this article…

Much better.

Okay, it’s Friday and I want to read an emotional article. Something that will take me on a rollercoaster of pain, doubt, hatred, mixed with a little bit of encouragement. Let’s see what we get.

Beginning: I hated this man. He never gave me any time of day. I loathed him with a burning passion. My soul yearned for a love story of a lifetime. It never came. So the situation never got better. After all those years of pain, I finally got married to the love of my life. I’m the happiest person in the world.

That’s okay. But it needs a little more oomph. Maybe this works better.

Beginning: I hated this man. He never gave me any time of day. I loathed him with a burning passion. My soul yearned for a love story of a lifetime. It never came. So the situation never got better. After all those years of pain, I finally got married to the love of my life. I’m the happiest person in the world.

People don’t give the power of italics enough credit. Emphasize with italics to give a word some pizzaz.

Real Final Thought

Hopefully, this article didn’t feel like a read to you. That’s the whole point. Sure, we read articles but they aren’t supposed to feel like reads. That’s what makes the reader fall in love with them.

To make your writing easier to read, here are the main takeaways of this article:

Enlarge your writing for very important points
Bold your writing to make it stand out within text so it doesn’t feel like you’re reading a long paragraph
Add in more pictures for an aesthetically pleasing article
Summarize your article so the reader can do a really quick read and they’ll know your main points and come back to it if they’re interested
Italicize words to give some oomph and emotional depth to your writing

These techniques may seem small, but they pack huge punches for short and sweet writing. Always keep in mind that the reader wants to be able to skim your writing easily.

Make it easier on them and you make it easier on yourself to get views.