Interesting copy helps readers learn In the early 19th century, German philosopher Johann Friedrich Herbart said that interest leads to understanding, learning and memory — and even inspires readers to learn more. For nearly 200 years, researchers, philosophers and communicators have seen the link between interest and learning. One of those researchers is … [Read more...] about Why be creative?
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Stop it with the ing-ing
Present participle heads may be worse than labels Barney Kilgore, the legendary editor of The Wall Street Journal, once wrote: "If I see 'upcoming' slip in[to] the paper again, I'll be downcoming and someone will be outgoing." I'm with Barney: Stop ing-ing. Especially in headlines. Now, to be fair, Kilgore's comment refers to gerunds: verbs that get turned into … [Read more...] about Stop it with the ing-ing
Create more short pages
Fewer long pages are less effective Think index cards, not toilet paper: Websites with many short pages — as opposed to those with fewer longer pages — work better. Usability experts John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen studied Web visitors' performance with two versions of a website: One site contained three pages with 4,500 words. The … [Read more...] about Create more short pages
The best of Times
The U.S. newspaper of record runs 33% feature leads New York's Grey Lady isn't so gray any more. Topping one-third of its stories with feature leads, The New York Times covers the world in living color. We analyzed 87 stories in the Dec. 15, 2014, edition of the Times. (We skipped the sports pages and one-paragraph stories.) Reporters started 29 of those pieces with … [Read more...] about The best of Times
Catch Your Readers in Chicago
Learn to use the bait your fish like on April 21-22 If you want to Catch Your Readers, you need to think like a reader. Then you need to use the bait your reader likes, not the bait you like. Problem is, many of the techniques we've institutionalized in business communication writing are not the bait the reader likes. In my two-day, hands-on writing workshop, Catch … [Read more...] about Catch Your Readers in Chicago