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Brevity
rules the electronic era. If you are a frequent reader
of this newsletter, you may have noticed that our
articles are fairly short and to the point. There's a
large difference between writing for print and writing
for electronic media, and smart executives know the
difference. Here are some key points.
One
advantage of writing for an interactive medium is making
it possible for readers to obtain more information
easily.
For
instance, in one of our earlier newsletters (see the
example under "Beyond
Blogs") we referred to an article originally
written for a print publication. A hyperlink allowed our
readers to see the entire article. Links can also access
documentation, Web sites or additional resources.
Paragraphs
need to be short because readers looking at computer
screens tend to scan information as opposed to reading
every word on the printed page. Keep your paragraphs to
four or five lines when possible.
Get
to the point. Your first paragraph should tell enough of
the story so that readers will know whether or not they
want to spend more time reading the entire article.
Wrap
it up neatly. Just because you are writing for a
different medium does not mean you can ignore standard
spelling and grammar rules. Edit, edit and edit some
more. Have other people edit it too. Your readers will
appreciate it. |
