Impactful Writing in a Time Poor World

The advent of the digital era has resulted in significant changes in the way people read. The internet has provided rapid access to huge amounts of information. So how do we change our writing style to meet our audience requirements in a time-poor world?

Whilst we are writing more on the Internet, we are doing so in an abbreviated style. Like newspapers, our written communication needs to catch our reader’s attention and help them read quickly. A recent study showed recruiters only spends 6 seconds looking at your resume. https://lifehacker.com/5901056/recruiters-only-look-at-your-resume-for-an-average-of-six-seconds-and-this-is-what-they-see

Even if the reader only reads your headline, they should have a good idea of what your article is about. This applies to your job applications, business emails, and general communications.

So how do you communicate your message and engage your audience?

Start with the end. Making your point clear in your first paragraph then expanding on it helps your reader quickly see if your message is relevant to them. Ask a question with the answers following.

• Use simple English. Try to get your ideas across so the audience will understand them effortlessly and rapidly. Avoid technical terminology or jargon. You’ll frustrate your reader if they need a dictionary to understand you.
•  Write conversationally. Internet users are either seeking information or wanting to engage in a dialogue. They don’t want to be lectured to. Make your writing compelling, personal and energetic. Active voice writing is often best. Use consistent style and conventions. Use “you” to personalise your text.
•  One idea per paragraph. People scan. They don't read. Short, meaningful sentences are better than long-winded ones. Limit your ideas to a group of words, whether in a sentence, phrase or paragraph.
•  Incorporate thought-provoking quotes, and appropriate media or images.

•  Making links part of your copy helps your reader find other relevant reference material. Don’t reinvent the wheel – just link to it. An extremely useful writing tool is Credosity, found at https://www.credosity.com
• Headlines help people navigate. And help you stand out from the crowd. Today’s readers, driven by the media and internet, have a “search-and-retrieve” approach where information is scanned by keywords or links, while ignoring the rest. Good headlines and subheadings help your reader navigate the content and decide if your article is of interest to them. Optimise your headlines around key phrases, rather than individual keywords to help your reader determine relevance. 
• Subheadings act like a table of contents, and breaks your information into easily-digestible pieces. Subheadings make your text easy to scan before your reader moves to the section of the document that is important to them.
•  Bold is beautiful. It helps to highlight certain phrases/words/sentences. Bolding helps readers to make sense of a page when skim reading, and provides a reference point for the reader’s eye.
•  Bullet paragraphs are easier to scan compared to paragraphs.
•  Cut it out. The Internet and media have resulted in people having far less patience in reading large blocks of narrative. Keep it simple, be concise and to-the-point to sustain reader interest. Use only the words you need to communicate the information. Even if you’re writing a document, cover letter, resume or email, the content has to be easily scannable.
•  Break up your articles into bite-sized pieces.  This may mean you have several articles to publish.
• Proof reading your work is critical to maintaining credibility. Typos and spelling errors will detract and distract.
•  Invite feedback with a "mailto" for comments, suggestions or questions to enhance the effectiveness of what you have written.
•  Try to stand out from the crowd. Dare to be different.

So what does it take for you to write better? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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Get in touch! My email address is glennsung@gmail.com