[Roy H. Williams] Font size in copy

[Woody C]

I subscribe to the Monday Morning Memo by Roy H. Williams and love it.

I recently noticed that each the first few words of each sentence after a break in the MMM is a bigger font than the rest of the sentence and sometimes the last few words are an even smaller font.

Why do you think he does this?

Is he funneling your attention from the beginning of the sentence to the end?

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts from a copy and psychological perspective.

[Ross James]

I'm not sure why he does... but I do know our subconsciousness is also reading the page and maybe for whatever reason he thinks this is some sort of covert way to keep peoples attention longer... I don't know for sure, I don't hate it... It could totally be a design thing as well... typography is one of those things people tend to ignore when designing their site... I think typography it is very important.

[Jerryl]

I think he does it to help draw you into his content.
It kinda grabs your attention, like bolding, italicizing, ect.

[travlinguy]

This is sometimes referred to as hypnotic writing. It's designed so the reader almost has to see the oddball text. Setting some of the text apart from the rest is just one aspect of this style.

[Woody C]

Originally Posted by travlinguy

This is sometimes referred to as hypnotic writing. It's designed so the reader almost has to see the oddball text. Setting some of the text apart from the rest is just one aspect of this style.

So do you think it's some sort of confusion induction to hypnotize you to pay attention?

I was thinking it may be something along those lines. Kind of like the Ericksonian handshake in writing so the subconscious pays attention to the words on the page.

I just found it interested that he did it within the same sentence.

[Ross James]

Originally Posted by Woody Crenshaw

So do you think it's some sort of confusion induction to hypnotize you to pay attention?

I was thinking it may be something along those lines. Kind of like the Ericksonian handshake in writing so the subconscious pays attention to the words on the page.

I just found it interested that he did it within the same sentence.

Cool theory, but only a little bit of this stuff works in print... in this case... I think it may be just playing off of breaking rapport subconsciously and possibly holds peoples attention longer...but I'm not even sure that it's really effective

I've been studying Ericksonian hypnosis... I really don't think it applies here... And I think if milton we're here he would agree.

[Alex Cohen]

Originally Posted by Woody Crenshaw

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts from a copy and psychological perspective.

He's creating cognitive dissonance which in this case makes you slightly uncomfortable as you read.

Helps to keep you from getting bored.

Alex

[Pusateri]

Roy has a metaphorical model of perceptual reality based on physics. Think of each variable in communication as a type of particle: color, font, sentence length, tone, etc.

His theory is that particle conflict (in this example the varied font sizes in the same sentence) creates interest.

What he calls particle stack (keeping the various particles congruent) increases clarity and understanding.

[HQJonz]

Creating interest at the expense of the reader in my opinion.