Module 03: Writing Remarkable Posts
Lesson 05: Real-World Writing
How to Forget What You Were Taught in School and Learn to Write for the
Web
Hey it's Jon again and just a quick warning before we start: this lesson might shock you
because I'll be asking you to throw a lot of what you learned about writing in school out the
window.
[Slide 2 & 3: Jon the English Literature major]
And you may not know this but I'm actually an English Literature major. I've read Shakespeare
and Chaucer and all those other old writer dudes. I can write with perfect grammar and I know
how to use lots of fancy words but you know what? None of that helped me become a popular
blogger. In fact, I think it was actually a disadvantage, but it took me a few years to learn how
not to sound like a snob.
[Slide 4: Writing For The Web Is Totally Different]
Because here's the thing: writing for the web is totally different from the kind of writing they
teach you at school. For instance, an essay that'd get top marks in your English class would
almost certainly bomb if you posted it online. And likewise, if you submitted a popular blog post
to your English teacher, it'd probably come back covered in a ton of red ink.
And it comes down to readers' short attention spans and them having so many other options for
things to read online instead of your post. Most don't care about fancy words or perfect
grammar. They have no qualms about abandoning your post halfway through – they're not paid
to read right to the end like your school teacher was. They'll only stick with your post for exactly
as long as it holds their attention.
[Slide 5: Your two jobs as an online writer]
Here's a simple way to think about it. If you want your writing to thrive in the real world you have
to do two things. You have to ​get​ people reading, and then you have to ​keep​ them reading.
Simpler to say than to do, but that's why I'm here, right?
[Slide 6: The Test You Need to Pass to Get People Reading]
So how do you get people reading? We've talked about hooking them with your opening, but
when they hit the middle of your post it's kinda like starting from scratch again. Remember how
we said that readers tend to scan your post before deciding whether to dive in and read it in full?
Well that applies here too. Seductive subheads are part of the answer but they're not the whole
story. And there's a simple secret to passing that scanning test….
[Slide 7: Does It Look Easy?]
Your post needs to ​look​ super easy to read. Forget for a moment whether it actually is or not,
but it needs to ​look​ easy. Because if it doesn't look easy, most people won't even give it a
chance.
[Slide 8: two posts side by side]
Just compare these two posts - which looks the easiest to read? It's the one of the right,
obviously. The one on the left is kind of this intimidating wall of dense text. It almost doesn't
matter what the text says because most people won't get that far.
[Slide 9: Tip #1 - Use Short Paragraphs]
So the first tip is to write using short paragraphs. Usually with just 1-3 sentences. All that extra
white space makes it appear much more friendly to read. Simple but very effective. And it may
feel strange to write like that to begin with but you'll quickly get the hang of it and as you study
more of the popular content online you'll see it's what most of the successful writers do too.
[Slide 10: Tip #2 - Use Rich Formatting]
The next trick is to use rich text formatting to visually break things up even more. I'm talking
about using bold and italics to emphasize certain words or phrases and numbered or bulleted
lists when you have a set of related points to make. Again, it's not the sort of thing you'd do in
school assignment but it makes your writing appear much clearer and easier to read.
[Slide 11: Example of richly formatted text]
So here's an example. See how the rich formatting is much easier on the eye? And remember,
at this stage we're just talking about the ​appearance​ of being easy to read and all this extra
formatting helps create that impression.
[Slide 12: Tip #3 - Use Embedded Quotes and Images]
And the last trick is to spread quotes, call-out boxes, and images throughout your post to break
things up even more and add visual interest. Here's a quick example.
[Slide 13: Example post with embedded images]
See how it makes the whole post seem more friendly and approachable?
These days to keep people on the page it's recommended to have some kind of image every
200 to 250 words. It could be a photo, or a chart or a diagram, or even just a quote in box.
Whatever it is, it'll help to break up the text. And this is in additional to the main featured image
for the post which we'll talk about in another lesson.
Okay, so that's three tips of get people to read your post by making it look as easy as possible.
What about the second part, keeping them reading?
[Slide 14: How to Keep People Reading (Even When They Probably Want to Stop)]
[Slide 15: Tip #4 - Use "Sweater-knit" Copy]
So my first tip here is to use something called "sweater-knit copy." Now this is a term coined by
my friend and popular blogger Carol Tice. It’s a powerful technique you may not have heard of
before, but it works wonders when you do it well.
[Slide 16: Close-up photo of a sweater]
And here's where the name comes from. If you look at a sweater, you can see the threads are
woven together so closely that it’s impossible to remove one thread without unraveling the
whole thing.
Good writing works the same way. When you look at a tightly-written piece of writing, each
sentence is completely dependent on the sentences before and after it. No one sentence can
stand on its own.
[Slide 17: Screenshot of post - On Dying, Mothers and Fighting for Your Ideas]
Here's an example from one of my posts.
[Slide 17 Animation: underline]
The doctor cleared his throat. ‘I’m sorry, but I have bad news.’
As readers, we automatically ask ourselves, “What bad news?” So we have to keep reading.
[Slide 17 Animation: underline]
He paused, looking down at the floor. He looked back up at her. He started to say something
and then stopped, looking back down at the floor.
Now we’re thinking, “Why is he acting this way?” We’re to find out so we can't help but continue
reading.
[Slide 17 Animation: underline]
That’s when Pat began to cry.
Who's Pat and why's she crying? Does she know something we don't? Again, we have to read
on to find out.
Every sentence has a mini-cliffhanger that pulls you into the next sentence, and the next one,
never offering a place to stop and rest. And that's the trick, making your readers feel like they
can’t stop reading until all their questions have been answered. Leading them sentence by
sentence by sentence right to the end of your post.
Writing sweater-knit copy is difficult to do when you’re creating your first draft, but you can work
on it during your editing phase. And you don't need to be telling a story by the way, whatever
you're talking about you just have to create these little questions in the reader's mind they need
to keep reading to get answered. When you get really good at this technique, you’ll should see a
huge increase in the number of people who finish reading your posts.
[Slide 18: Tip #5: Remove Any "Fluff"]
Many writers fall into the trap of saying more than they have to. They say the same thing in
several different ways, essentially repeating themselves. They use lots of adjectives and
adverbs, or tell interesting but unnecessary stories that don’t add anything to the post.
[Slide 19: Screenshot of highlighted edits from ​this post​]
But your job as a real-world writer is to remove anything that isn’t essential to getting your
message across. Because the moment readers feel you're going off-track they'll bounce away.
So the tighter your writing is and the more “fluff” you can remove, the longer your readers will
keep reading. Because fluff just slows them down and makes them more likely to stop
altogether.
There are lots of types of fluff to watch out for and we'll link to a couple of posts lower down that
will help you remove it from your writing.
[Slide 20: Tip #6: Make It All About Them]
The final tip for keeping people reading is to make your post all about them. And what I mean by
that is you should talk about them, the reader, far more than you talk about yourself, the writer.
You see, we humans are a rather self-interested bunch and love hearing about ourselves. On
the flip side we switch off pretty quickly if we have to spend too long hearing about other people.
[Slide 21: Image of teacher in classroom]
Just imagine you're back in class and your teacher is giving each student some public feedback
about a recent assignment. You're going to be much more engaged when the teacher is talking
about your work than other people's, right? It's only natural. In fact, once you've had your
feedback it would be natural for you to zone out.
And it's the same with your posts. Readers need to feel they are the center of attention and an
very practical way to do that is to use the word "you" as often as you can. In fact, that's an easy
test to see how reader-centered your writing is. Count up all the times you use the word "you"
compared to "I" or "me". If "you" doesn't win hands down then you have a problem.
[Slide 22: Close up of post with "you" and "your" circled]
Okay, that's it folks. A crash course in real-world writing. Integrate these tips into your writing
and you'll do a better job of engaging online readers than 99% of bloggers out there. I'll see you
in another lesson soon!