Writing for Busy Readers

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We were all taught the fundamentals of writing well in school. But how do we write effectively in today’s hyper-interactive world?

When The Elements of Style and On Writing Well were published in 1959 and 1976, the internet hadn’t been invented. Since then, there has been a radical transformation in how we communicate. The average adult receives over 100 emails and tens of text messages each day. With all this correspondence, gaining a busy reader’s attention is now a competition.

Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink, both behavioural scientists, offer practical writing advice you can use today. They begin by outlining cognitive facts about how busy people read, then detail six research-backed principles for effective writing:

Use fewer words
Lower the reading level
Use formatting judiciously
Make the purpose clear for skimmers
Emphasise value for readers
Make responding as easy as possible.
Including many examples, a checklist, and other tools for the most effective writing, this handbook will make you a more effective communicator. Rogers and Lasky-Fink bring conventional ideas about text-based communication into the 21st century’s radically transformed attention marketplace.
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