How to Write Articles That Aren’t Just Scanned but Actually Read?

Writing the content is all about choosing the right words so that people read it. Often content writers spend loads of time ensuring that their contents are well converted and shared widely. But how to know whether the content is actually read or not? How to know? The main reason behind it is that only a few people go through the contents from very beginning to end.

This may be because of the instant gratification culture that we have. Besides, there are numerous other articles, which vie for the attention of people. Usually reading from screens takes almost 25% longer time than reading newspaper articles. Studies have also proved that readers often feel unpleasant while it comes to reading a long text online.

There are some tips to consider in this case, which will help you to structure the article in the right way:

1.   While reading the articles, the eyes of the readers mostly move fast across
2.   Usually, readers read a content in “F” pattern, which puts the major emphasis on the headline and several introductory paragraphs of the content
3.   They never read the content in the left to right manner
4.   While scrolling down any page, the majority of the readers emphasize the left part of the webpage or the blog while skimming the rest areas of content.

Therefore, it makes sense to find out the right approach while it comes to writing for the readers online. Besides, it is also necessary to crack the code to convert more audiences into real clients. Switching up the game plan can be helpful in this case. Here is a step by step guide, which you can follow.

Make the content snappy

One of the most important tips to write a readable content is to forget what you have learned in the English composition class. Before you write a blog or web page, it is also necessary to keep in mind that most of the people scan the contents rather than reading those in detail. So, in case you are writing on any complex topic, try to break the entire content into a series of posts.

It is a great way to understand whether people are coming back to read your article. And at the same time, it will also be easier for the readers to digest your contents as these are available in portion-controlled sizes. After doing it, follow the steps mentioned below to make the content more user-friendly.

Write the content in short paragraphs

This is one of the most important techniques while it comes to create the most readable contents. So, always use short paragraphs. Short means really short…some paragraphs even contain a single sentence. You must not prefer to read an ugly and large block of texts as reading through these texts will actually strain your eyes.

Therefore, the text must be broken down into more digestible and smaller chunks and make the white space your pal. This thing will make the content easy to read and aesthetically pleasing while helping your eyes to move seamlessly from one section to another without the requirement of taxing the brain.

Only use short sentences

It doesn’t make sense to drag out any content by using high-level vocabulary and long-winded sentences, which only make your content suitable for only the academic elites. Rather you need to understand that the readers of your content include different types of readers with different education level.

This will make sure that your readers don’t have to look at the dictionary to understand what the content actually likes to portray. Apart from that, keep the sentences brief so that the content sounds smart. According to the experts, using more than 16 words in any sentence is considered as long.

Use subheads

The majority of readers don’t even feel interested in reading every part of any article. Rather they choose to bounce around to find out the interesting pieces of details, which attract them. This thing can be accommodated by adding a few practical and simple subheads in the entire article.

Subheads will help you to break the contents in a logical manner while making the content flow. These also work as an easy and quick method to locate the main details while accelerating the reading process. Just make sure that the subheads you use, encapsulate the contents written in the following paragraphs.

Use inverted pyramid style in your writing

The inverted pyramid is a great style for structuring any content in such a manner, which your readers would appreciate. This style works great as it puts the most important details first considering the fact that 60% of the readers only go through the first paragraph of any content.

Use images

Images mainly serve two different purposes. These work as the eye candy while fulfilling the subconscious desire of the readers for visual stimuli. Besides, these also offer periodic breaks between the blocks of texts. In both of the ways, images help the readers to keep on the business sites for a longer period while encouraging them to get fully engaged with the contents.

Apart from that, images also help to enrich the contents with details and to add validity to the points. As mentioned by the experts, it is better to use data-driven images or pictures in the contents instead of using placeholders. The former types will add to the complete depth of the contents.

Include easily scannable texts: Apart from adding images, try to break the content up by creating text, which is really easy to read and consume. Some of the common instances of these texts are:

• Meaningful subheadings
• Highlighted keywords
• A single idea in every paragraph
• Bullet points
• Less or half the word count than the conventional style of writing

Use bullet points

Who doesn't prefer using bullet points while writing any content? There will be hardly anyone. The best part about the bullet points is that these break down the information seamlessly to help the users to extract the major information without any hassle. The right example of using bullet points is to separate the major points by using bullet lists without separating the details by commas or writing the lists in different sentences.

Prepare lists

Readers love to go through lists while reading any article. The lists actually break down the contents in a sequential and logical manner while keeping things tidy and neat. Studies have also proved that lists are the 2nd most shareable parts of any content. So, to maximize the readability of your content, you must add some lists. But remember that lists are not appropriate for every content type, as this can sometimes make the content look redundant.

Add some links to the external sources

To add more credibility and authority to the content, you can add different data points, quotes or graphs from external reliable sources. This will help you to back up the arguments. But it is not a practical idea to add every gory detail. Rather you can choose to add one or two key sentences and then place in a link to the source. This way, your readers will be able to go through the link, in case they want to learn more about the topic you have covered. And at the same time, your content will not be bogged down with extraneous details.

Conclusion

Creating readable contents have never been more significant than this is now. By presenting the details in a visually appealing and streamlined manner while accommodating the modern readers, it is actually possible to enhance the experience of the readers. This method is also effective for encouraging the scanners to read the entire content. So, the end result would be happy readers, who would spend more time to read and share the content.