Formatting Your Article so it’s Easier to Read
There’s a lot of content on the web, and anyone who has lost themselves down a Wikipedia hole knows that. With the amount of web content increasing, formatting your article helps information be accessible and easier to read. Disjointed articles and longwinded paragraphs lead to reader fatigue, causing them to close their browser window. To avoid this letdown, we’ve compiled a few tips and tricks that you can use to format your articles, making them easier to read.
Maximize Headers
First up, we have headers. You want to make sure that you use the right kind, as they actively convey different information. If you make every header in your article a level one header, that might suggest that you have several articles on a single page. Similarly, if you don’t use any headers, you might confuse readers on how you’re dividing the information.
Headers, like lists, are a way to organize information. You may have one or two high-level headers with several lower-level headers under each.
For example, suppose you’re writing a basic grammar guide. In that case, you might put “Punctuation” and “Common Mistakes” as level two headers, and then put “Periods,” “Commas,” and “Question Marks” as level three headers under “Punctuation.” That way, it helps the reader find the information they’re looking for; see below for a visual example.
(H2) Punctuation
(H3) Periods
(H3) Commas
(H3) Question Marks
(H2) Common Mistakes
Powerful Paragraphs
How many of you have visited a website, only to find that the writer formatted the information into a single, awful wall of text? It truly feels like hitting a brick wall, stopping you dead in your tracks. This is why breaking up your text into paragraphs is crucial. Rather than the reader scrolling through blocks of text, it is much easier to find the information they’re looking for through portioned writing.
By changing up the length of your paragraphs, you make the page more visually appealing, and if the page is more visually attractive, you’re more likely to retain readers.
Vary Your Sentences
Another way to increase readability is by changing up the length of your sentences. This is for the same reason as changing up your paragraphs. Variety is interesting. It’s so important that if you use Grammarly, it will point out when you have three or more sentences that are too similar in length and style and scream at you to fix it.
Let’s take a look at two examples. These sentences are almost the same length. Each one is about six words. I’ve counted them all out. It’s hard keeping sentences at six words. You have to consider each word. You can feel your soul dying. Is this what purgatory feels like?
But now! A second example, one with variety! I mean, that sentence was six words, but that was only a coincidence. Now I can write whatever I want instead of limiting myself to only a few words at a time! This is nice. Now, I’m going to write one more long sentence to finish this paragraph off and increase its length.
That second example is more visually interesting than the first. Too many long sentences will make your writing feel like it drags, while the opposite is true, too. A mixture is best.
Use Lists
Another way to add some visual interest is by using lists. Lists can do a few things for an article:
- They grab the reader’s attention.
- They convey information succinctly.
- They break up long text blocks.
- They help readers understand the content.
Additionally, you can use two kinds of lists: numbered and bulleted. You want to make sure you use the right list for the right content. You don’t want to use a bulleted list for a Top Ten Most Powerful Wizards in Fiction. Likewise, you don’t want a numbered list when it doesn’t matter what order the list items are in.
Carefully consider if you need to establish a hierarchy for your information, and then pick the list format that suits the information.
Friendly Fonts
Picking a font depends on the medium you’re working with. The general rule is to use serif fonts for print content and sans serif for web content.
What are those? Serif fonts are those like Times New Roman, Baskerville, and Georgia. Many of the letters have little ticks or tails at the corners of the letters. These little ticks are called serifs, and they make it easier to distinguish between letters on paper.
On the other hand, sans serif fonts are those like Arial, Comic Sans, and Montserrat. The lettering in these fonts doesn’t have serifs. This produces fonts that are, generally speaking, cleaner in appearance and easier to read on a screen.
So, what font to use? I’d say one that’s suited to the medium you’re writing for. You can use a serif font for a web article, but you might need to increase the size to make it more legible. I would also recommend sticking with a universally available font so that your readers can see it.
Be Careful How You Emphasize
HEY, DO YOU LIKE IT WHEN SOMEONE USES ALL CAPS TO EMPHASIZE SOMETHING? NO?
Good. As was aptly demonstrated, I wouldn’t recommend using all caps to do so. Instead, I would rely on bold and italics to get the job done for you.
Bolding words draw immediate attention and let them act as mini headers. This can help the reader find key information quickly. You don’t want to go overboard, though; too much bold can put people off.
Italics are also useful when emphasizing something. Unlike bold, however, italics are hard to read. You definitely wouldn’t want to format an entire sentence or paragraph in italics, but you could use it to draw attention to keywords.
I’d also avoid underlining words for emphasis. Unless your article is specifically on how to anger readers, you might want to avoid underlines.
But Wait, There’s More!
The cool thing about web content is that you can tweak things until satisfied. Whatever the case, you can try things out and then run them by a few test readers—friends, family, maybe people you’ve trapped in the coffee shop—to see what works and what doesn’t. See what works for you and your readers.