Comments on: If You’re Scrolling, You’re Gone.

By: ken

ken — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:06:25 +0000

I agree.

Short paragraphs are better.

Scrolling = death.

Fragments and brevity = blog Zen.

By: Internet: The Dumb-Maker « On the Tenure Track

Internet: The Dumb-Maker « On the Tenure Track — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:55:41 +0000

[...] I came across an interesting title from The Line, where Ms. Dina quotes another, similar article. I clicked on the [...]

By: Kate Olson

Kate Olson — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:00:43 +0000

Great find! The Slate article had a lot of good information, I’m glad you pointed us to it. I’ve found that when I analyze how I read, I have a lot better luck paying attention when there’s at least 1 image in a post and breaking up long paragraphs is a MUST. Actually the long paragraph thing applies to any reading I do. I’m an incredibly fast reader, but I really do skim a lot – even with books. Thanks for the great info to take into consideration when writing online.

By: Benjamin Baxter

Benjamin Baxter — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:22:52 +0000

Breaking up long paragraphs is a good blogging skill to have, and I’m glad I learned it as a journalist because it helped in my blogging. There’s something about adding the bright screen into the equation that makes it harder to break up writing into recognizable, understandable chunks.

As much as I like Dr. Scott McLeod, I have trouble reading his long blocks of text on my computer screen. Though is style is perfect for a book, or even a magazine, it doesn’t work in newspapers and especially doesn’t work in blogs.

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:06:13 +0000

Dan has a good point that it’s more of a new medium. Even when reading online we’re not always reading in the way Dave has described. We (most of us, I think) approach online reading in a variety of ways depending on the purpose, just as we approach reading in a newspaper in different ways depending on the purpose.