Article writing: use of bold, italics, and underling

14 replies
When I wrote my first blog entries, I may as well have just written them in note pad, copy & pasted, and then hit publish: they made absolutely no use of any formatting tricks, and after several were posted, I wasn't impressed with the result. Now as the author of them, if I'm not impressed by the result, then I know my readers aren't going to be either.

With 10 published, I decided it was time to rewrite all of them. Or more accurately: reformat them. I began with the oldest and began making use of bold, italics, underlining, and added some eye candy by including a small image in each (less than 20kb is my rule of thumb to minimize loading time and the likelihood of losing the interest of my visitor). I also did some minor editing for conciseness, clarity, and to keep paragraphs reasonably short.

I have 4 out of 10 done so far. I was pleased with the changes I made to the first 3, but on the forth, found myself wondering afterward if I'd gone too far toward the other extreme, and over-formatted it with too much underling, bold face, etc.

Any other content focused IM'ers have any general rule of thumb they use in this regard? I'd appreciate any advice. My writing background is mainly academic, where formatting effects were less important than substance, accuracy, and clarity. Now that I'm writing to a different audience than a bunch of academics, I know my writing style has to change as well to play to that audience if its to grab their attention and hold their interest.

My worry is in turning off with excessive use of formatting effects, while realizing at the same time that I have to make some use of these, as paragraphs of plain text is not going to cut it in the world of IM.
#article #bold #italics #underling #writing
  • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
    Ok I sort of answered my own question on this, in recalling an old adage about trusting your gut, and that if it looks "wrong" that's because it is wrong. They say that about a lot of things, but I believe its true for writing as well. So I went back to the freshly edited post, edited it AGAIN, and stripped out half the formatting effects. The result no longer raised my "this looks wrong" flag, and still managed to conform to the original intent: the text was more eye catching and aesthetically pleasing than paragraphs of plain text.

    Lesson learned from this experience: make use of the preview button to see how it actually looks on site BEFORE hitting publish! Ugh.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157549].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    When writing online, I think one has to understand and accept that, generally, audiences will have short attention spans....especially as there are thousands of viable blogs and websites all vying to convey their message and get dedicated readership to spend time on their sites. When I write, I've come to notice the value of, just like you said, using bold and italics to help string along paragraphs to keep people focused and intrigued until the end.

    No matter how interesting the content, I believe there is nothing more boring than being bombarded by a see of plain text without the injection of something 'different' throughout the text to carry a reader along. For that reason, I do like to accomodate page skimmers by bolding 3 or 4 word phrases midway through each paragraph. This has actually become imperative because many articles that I write err towards 1,000+ words. Some will disagree, but based on my own experiences, that word count has worked the best for me in the achievement of my online writing goals.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157586].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
      Thanks for the feedback everyone, its extremely helpful reading these points of view and suggestions!

      Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post

      When writing online, I think one has to understand and accept that, generally, audiences will have short attention spans....especially as there are thousands of viable blogs and websites all vying to convey their message and get dedicated readership to spend time on their sites. When I write, I've come to notice the value of, just like you said, using bold and italics to help string along paragraphs to keep people focused and intrigued until the end.

      No matter how interesting the content, I believe there is nothing more boring than being bombarded by a see of plain text without the injection of something 'different' throughout the text to carry a reader along. For that reason, I do like to accomodate page skimmers by bolding 3 or 4 word phrases midway through each paragraph. This has actually become imperative because many articles that I write err towards 1,000+ words. Some will disagree, but based on my own experiences, that word count has worked the best for me in the achievement of my online writing goals.
      This looks like a sound strategy that work for me as well, as I'm probably averaging 1,000 words per article - and this is even while trying to keep it as concise as I can. I think this is the curse of being a decent writer who loves to write, and who is also narcissistic enough to take even more pleasure from re-reading things I've written.

      What I find amusing, is that with the only clickbank product offer I signed up for (to receive the newsletter, I'm not yet sold on the product to market it, and I'm not going to market it if the product is crap or makes promises it doesn't deliver on), the owner sends a newsletter with a tip to limit articles to 500 words, maximum. No way I can do that!

      I can write short articles - absolutely - but on my own site I like to discuss topics where 500 words covers a good introduction and begins to get into the meat of the body, but requires at least another 500 to finish.

      On the flip side, there is so little that looks good on clickbank in my niche that in a few months, if nothing else, I can take my own content - which is written to be readable and informative - and put it on clickbank for other affiliates to sell

      I'm serious about that, by the way. I don't want to scratch write an e-book, but I see the potential already in an authoritative site with well written and researched content providing the ready made food for a good e-book. It would only require collating the articles around a well structured TOC, adding some transitional text, and some additional editing.

      I guess I have plans within plans, and none of them involve making someone else rich or chasing after shiny new objects.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157768].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author MissLauraCatella
    Reading on the screen is a very visual experience for me.

    I like things clean, spaced out, and I like to see the text all pretty at the appropriate times. Makes reading much more interactive and interesting.

    Of course, if one overdoses on the text decoration, it completely negates the intended effect and NOTHING ends up enhanced.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157639].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
    The keywords in bold and such helps plus a lot of the time certain phases in bold can lead a reader to the box without them actually reading the entire article.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157666].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kyle Stankiewicz
    I think one of the keys to keeping readers engaged in an online environment is to break your work up into sections, and give those sections big bold subtitles. Cover things topic by topic and keep it organized, readers can easily follow the flow of ideas and won't drown in plain text. One image is always advisable as well. As far as bold/underline/italics go, use them only when appropriate to do so, overusing them can be cheesy and amateurish.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157903].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
      Originally Posted by Kyle Stankiewicz View Post

      I think one of the keys to keeping readers engaged in an online environment is to break your work up into sections, and give those sections big bold subtitles. Cover things topic by topic and keep it organized, readers can easily follow the flow of ideas and won't drown in plain text. One image is always advisable as well. As far as bold/underline/italics go, use them only when appropriate to do so, overusing them can be cheesy and amateurish.
      Having just finished redoing all of my articles, this was the approach I adopted. I made light use of italics, bold type, and underlining, but used it in moderation to draw attention to specific ideas, concept, and major points.

      Longer posts I broke up by using one or more headings, in bold face and centered, that summarized in a short sentence what was about to follow next.

      Except for one short post, I inserted an image that captured in some way what I was writing about, and I added it below one of the first 2 paragraphs. To keep the page responsive with decent load speed, I limited each post to a single image that was re-sized (I used a public domain, free for commercial use source) for screen and physical size (I limited them to 20 kb max).

      The before and after difference is night and day: now instead of bland, unformatted, paragraphs of vanilla black on white text, it looks far more aesthetically pleasing, eye catching (in a good way), engaging and professional.

      Content is definitely king (in my opinion) but I've realized now that a big part of quality content isn't just what you write and how well written it is, but also in how well its presented to your target audience. This isn't a subject I've seen a lot of attention devoted to, but IMHO presentation and quality content are two sides of the same coin: ignore (or botch) either and the effect is as valuable as a coin with 2 heads.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4158811].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Gail_Curran
        Good points all. My only comment would be that I avoid using underlines in web content because people are conditioned to see underlined text as a link. They WILL click on or mouse over it. If it's not a link, there is a sense of thwarted expectation.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4159229].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Yogini
    I tend to like reading text where there are some bolded phrases and little images or clip art. It depends on topic of course. If it was about fixing something broken in my house I'd just want the information. I'm not that visual a person but I like seeing some headlines, though nothing done in an obnoxious way. Sometimes it can help with skimming too. For instance, if the beginning is a history section and it was bolded, I may skip it if I wasn't interested in the history.

    Debbie
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157914].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ChrisMcDonald
    I must admit, especially as a newbie, that seeing a 'wall of text' definitely puts me off reading something. If an article or blog is nicely laid out and formatted, with short paragraphs, then the chances are I'll read the whole article!

    Chris
    Signature
    English Speaking Writers - 400 word, 100% original articles for $6. Larger projects undertaken
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157959].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
    In the long run ... if it is a new tactic I am thinking can make a difference in the bottom line .. I would read it off a dog turd.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4157964].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dilawer
    great tips i really like to decorate words in my posts, this also helps with SEO
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4158217].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    LOOK at the way Bold, Italic and Underline are used in this forum.

    Scan a few threads to see what posts jump out at you...

    Read a few sales pages, to see how they use special formatting...

    Read a couple copy writing tutorials to see how people advise you to use this type of formatting...

    When you are done, I am certain you will agree with me that naked posts are boring and uninspiring, but there is always a risk of going overboard.

    Keep the balance of the force, young Jedi...
    Signature
    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4158538].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author peejaydee
    Here's an article I wrote quite a while ago on simple golden rules for writing for the web.
    Even with the benefit of hindsight, I still stand by them. Let me know if your agree or disagree.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4159324].message }}

Trending Topics