Writing Formats For Essays: 2 Easy Steps For Organizing Stories And Ideas
3 min readSep 17, 2021
Most writers think how readers read is linearly.
They click. They start at the top. And then they read each word, of each sentence, all the way down the page.
But in the words of Mark Twain, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
The truth is, readers don’t actually read linearly down the page.
What they do is they jump around.
- They read the headline.
- Then they read the first sentence of the piece.
- Then they scroll and skim the subheads.
- And then, if the headline and the first sentence and the subheads all hook their attention, they start to read.
Which means, if your writing isn’t “skimmable,” your writing isn’t readable.
Think about that for a second.
You could write the greatest story or insightful perspective on earth, but if it’s formatted poorly, it’s not going to get read. Why? Because readers judge content online *visually* before they even read a single word. And if your content looks long, and boring, and difficult to read, then readers are going to…
