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Writing

According to WebProNews people prefer to consume information through short articles but should be reading a combination of long and short pieces. If you are a regular reader you know that my usual post length falls somewhere between long and really long — it’s the novelist in me. Just because I can’t seem to bring myself to shorten my own posts, doesn’t mean that you have to follow in my footsteps.

Here is a concise guide to making your posts, well, more concise.


Shorter Posts

Use Lists. Bullets,

  • Help you conserve words.
  • Force you to remove extraneous fluff.
  • Help make complex concepts more clear.

Edit To Remove Words. When going over your post before publishing, always look for places where you can remove words. Clarity almost always comes from brevity.

Avoid Hedges. Generally, you want to avoid hedges. I believe, they reduce the impact of your writing and make your pieces unnecessarily longer.

What’s your point again? Write with a purpose. Once you feel that you have accomplished the goal of a particularly post stop. Don’t feel beholden to maintain a certain word length, you’re not in high school anymore.


Web 2.0 Roundup

While short articles are easier to scan (thus more likely to be read), you can only fit so much information into a limited number of words. The point? You should always write for meaning. Only make your post as long as absolutely necessary to convey meaning, but don’t feel afraid to analyze a topic in depth of the subject matter deserves it.

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