Making Writing Scannable

Once the writer has a general understanding of how people read and remember, the next step would be to write in a way that allows readers to scan the information. Keeping the writing short and putting the most important elements first is an effective technique.

Traditional journalists have been using this technique for many years. In fact, the first sentence in a traditional news article, the "lead," is usually 30 words or less. The lead contains the "who, what, where, why and how" of the story. After the lead is established, the writer organizes the rest of the information from the most important to the least important, so the reader gets most of his or her questions answered in the beginning of the story—a good rule to follow when writing for the web.

Sentences And Paragraphs

Using short sentences (25 words or less) is effective way to make writing scannable. As with any type of good writing, concise sentences that contain useful information are also a good technique for keeping readers interested. Web paragraphs should be no longer than six to eight sentences and using one or two sentence paragraphs is fine.