avatarMike Sansone

Summary

The author describes their personal approach to reading and highlighting articles on Medium, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the writer's words and unique voice rather than the existing highlights, and the strategic use of highlights as "Eye Rests" to draw attention to key points.

Abstract

Upon encountering a story on Medium, the author initially adjusts their perspective to look beyond existing highlights, aiming to engage deeply with the text without immediate influence from others' emphasis. They pay close attention to the writer's use of formatting, such as bold and italic text, and avoid highlighting these to preserve the writer's intended emphasis. The author uses their own highlights to create "speed bumps" for important plain text, ensuring readers do not overlook valuable content. They also highlight small portions of text that resonate personally or represent the author's unique voice, as well as to serve as Eye Rests in their own writing. After completing their own reading and highlighting, the author reviews other readers' highlights to see if they missed anything important, valuing the insights of specific readers who influence their understanding. The article concludes with an encouragement to revisit highlights as a source of inspiration for future stories.

Opinions

  • The author values the writer's original formatting and chooses not to highlight over these elements.
  • Highlights are used strategically to guide attention and slow down skimming, serving as visual cues or "Eye Rests."
  • The author trusts the opinion of a friend, Maryam Tariq, who believes that "Too many highlights are a myth," suggesting a preference for quality over quantity in highlights.
  • There is skepticism towards readers who highlight excessively or in a manner that appears insincere or manipulative.
  • The author acknowledges the significance of other readers' insights, particularly those of respected individuals like Mary Ann Writes, Leonard Tillerman, and Frankie Pendles.
  • The article suggests that highlights can be a rich source of ideas for new content, encouraging writers to review their highlights for potential story leads.

Reading on Medium

How I Highlight Your Stories

My method of reading and highlighting as I read.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

When I first land on your story, I re-adjust my eyes if I see a lot of highlights. I want to see beyond the highlights that are already there.

I want to focus on your writing rather than being influenced by other highlights. At least not right away. That comes later.

First things first. Your words. How you’ve shaped them. Did you use bolds and italics and other Eye Rests in your article?

I avoid highlighting these. I love them, but I don’t want my highlighting to hide or hinder your emphasis.

At the same time, I will sometimes use my highlights to serve as an eye rest so others will maybe slow down on your plain text that seems easy to scroll down to the bottom. My highlights might serve as a speed bump of sorts.

As an aside, I sometimes highlight a small portion of my own stories to serve as additional Eye Rests in my own stories.

Now, I’ve been known to highlight small portions of paragraphs that help me, help you, and help other readers.

When I read your article, I read it (or quit it). I pay attention to your words. Like I’m listening to you. I highlight the things I want to remember.

A friend, Maryam Tariq, once told me, “Too many highlights are a myth.” And I trust her opinion.

In this piece, I’ve had at least two highlights as examples of how I highlight.

Another thing I do, while I read your story, is when I find a piece of your unique voice, often a mini-paragraph or a bit in parenthesis (← like that), I might highlight it as a way to draw your attention to it and my gratitude.

I’ve learned to ignore full-boat, paint brushed highlights of paragraphs, and do things piece by piece. I’m trying to read.

I don’t highlight once at the top of your story and again at the bottom, and I think I’m fooling anyone. I see that, and I cringe at the schemes of other “readers.”

But there is nothing I can or will do about those folks.

After I’m done highlighting, I look at other highlights to ensure I haven’t missed what others think is important. If I see that Mary Ann Writes, Leonard Tillerman, or Frankie Pendles has highlighted something I didn’t, I go see what I missed. Their opinions make me smarter.

I see many names I know; some highlight everything (?), others highlight once and then disappear (??)

Here’s a question for you: Do you read your highlights? Not just in responses, but actually visit your story and look at the highlights? There is gold there.

In these highlights, you’ll find nuggets for follow-up stories and articles!

Here is the Eye Rests story I mention above:

Thank you, friends and readers. Feel free to clap if you want to or leave a response. Do you have a good nickname? Let me know!

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