Getting Your Message Across With Paragraphs

Posted on February 27th, 2008. Written by Rico.

Technology makes it easy to spread a message, but it can’t save us from all the errors we can commit along the way.

For instance, if we take a look at the Pro Copyright Petition, an online signature campaign that has so far secured 819 virtual scribbles, the first thing anyone will notice is just how hard it is to read the whole text.

That’s because for some reason, we have difficulty following large blocks of words. Such a layout makes it harder for the eye to track the beginning of the next line.

The publisher of the petition would do well to break up the treatise into smaller and easily consumed paragraphs. We bet that might help gather more support for what seems to be a noble campaign. No matter how noble a cause is, it wouldn’t hurt to make more easily understood.

PS: Perhaps the writer of the petition would have also done well to get rid of unnecessary words? There’s nothing wrong with a bit of literary drama (“Must we now trespass on these grounds and steal the fruit, while the owner is looking the other way?”), but being concise does make appealing to a wide audience that much easier (“Is it now proper to steal the work of others, while the owner looks the other way?”).