How to type in a way that other people will read what you write

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Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.

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How to type in a way that other people will read what you write


Here's the deal,

When it comes to reading text, the way the human eyes are made, it becomes DIFFICULT for your eyeballs to TRACK from the END of one sentence to the beginning of the next sentence after 3-4 sentences.

That's just a fact.


IF you type all our words into one HUGE BLOCK OF TEXT - you are FORCING people to STRUGGLE to read what you have written.


Here's what I know about people, even good-hearted people. When you make people STRUGGLE to read what you have written, when it's simply difficult - it's easier to NOT read it. That's right, people won't read huge chunks of text. Instead, they will simple >click away<.

So when you start a thread on this forum or ANY online social media platform AND you type in HUGE CHUNKS or BLOCKS of text - you're making it difficult to get help because you're making it difficult for people to read what you have written.


Me?

I won't read huge chunks of text. It's simply too difficult. This makes it time consuming. So because I had Admin authority on this forum, when I see people type in HUGE chunks of text, the first thing I'll do is EDIT their post and place the cursor after a few sentences and hit the old [ENTER] key and BREAK-UP the huge block of text simply so I can read the freaking thing.


Been doing this for 11 years now on this forum and after opening an e-mail this morning, only to see a HUGE BLOCK OF TEXT - not a single break in the entire thing. And after editing people's posts on this forum for YEARS now so not only can I read it but so other forum members can read it - I finally decided to write this article and this way moving forward I can share it with people that don't understand the above with a blue clickable link at the top of this article. :laughing:


Come on folks.... it's not that hard....


The BIG PICTURE is this,

When you type in huge blocks of text - you're hurting yourself. Naturally good-hearted people on this forum that with their own FREE TIME - that would normally click the [Post Reply] button and try to help you.... they'll simply >click away<.


So think. Hit that [ENTER] key once in a while. Break up your huge chunks or blocks of text into SMALLER BITE SIZE CHUNKS that the human eye can more easily read and digest.



What I've written above is an example of NOT writing in huge blocks of text. It's not that hard.


:props:
 
I couldn’t agree more. I simply ignore posts with large chunks of texts even if they contain valuable info. It’s just a hassle to attempt to read it and I’m sure we are all here to avoid hassles.

Good post, Mike!
 
Bill D said:
I couldn’t agree more. I simply ignore posts with large chunks of texts even if they contain valuable info.

It’s just a hassle to attempt to read it and I’m sure we are all here to avoid hassles.
Click to expand...

I am vindicated. Thank you Bill for sharing the above.



Bill D said:
Good post, Mike!
Click to expand...


I'm just trying to help people help themselves.

Much in the same way I try to help people get great results when they detail a car, I'm trying to help people get great results when they make a post to this forum.

Reality is - people should type with breaks no matter where they are typing. The problem with this is - Facebook and Instagram don't lend themselves to this type of typing. Neither does Twitter. There are work-arounds, like typing with breaks in a Word Processor and then copying and pasting into one of the above aforementioned social media platforms but that requires more time and work.

If people don't read what you write - it's kind of like wasting your time.


:)
 
I’m never a fan of diarrhea of the keyboard so I hope this thread may remind folks to break up their text.
 
Capitalization and punctuation is the difference between "helping your uncle, Jack, off a horse" and "helping your uncle jack off a horse" as I told one of my production leads who continuously sent me run-on sentence email paragraphs. LMAO
 
Completely agree with Mike. If I open a new post and it's about 10 lines of continuous text, I just close it. I'm not reading that.

But if you write 5 blocks of 2 lines, I'm much more likely to read it. I don't even know why, it's just natural to me to do that.

Wrote all caps? Sorry, not reading that either. My dad does that often :(
 
Mike, you shared this with me personally at about post 10 in my AGO career. Lol

It’s true. When I see a huge chunk of text, I just hit the “back” button and move on. Probably should read, but I don’t. This guy is guilty of backing away.
 
Spikey Mike said:
Capitalization and punctuation is the difference between "helping your uncle, Jack, off a horse" and "helping your uncle jack off a horse" as I told one of my production leads who continuously sent me run-on sentence email paragraphs. LMAO
Click to expand...

Another good one one is: "Lets go eat, Grandma" vs "Lets go eat Grandma". Punctuation can stop cannibalism.

Back on topic. Many of the people I work for are heavily task saturated. When answering questions the best way to make sure it is read and understood is to keep it brutally short, on topic, and break up key points into bulleted statements. Anything is long paragraphs is ripe for being missed or not understood.
 
Desertnate said:
Another good one one is: "Lets go eat, Grandma" vs "Lets go eat Grandma". Punctuation can stop cannibalism.
Click to expand...

Powerful indeed! :laughing:



Desertnate said:
Back on topic. Many of the people I work for are heavily task saturated.

When answering questions the best way to make sure it is read and understood is to keep it brutally short, on topic, and break up key points into bulleted statements.

Anything is long paragraphs is ripe for being missed or not understood.
Click to expand...


Copy that.

I'm a long winded writer but it's usually because I'm sharing lots of info - or at least I think I'm sharing lots of info? :dunno:


I do use bullet points a lot. The human eyeballs LIKE bullet points and thus will read them.


I should have written this article 11 years ago.

Moving forward I'll probably share it but only meant in the spirit of trying to help others.


:)
 
This is an excellent thread.

When I see these 1,000 word text chunks, I just shake my head and "click away" like Mike said in the OP.

Spikey Mike made a very funny, but also excellent point about capitalization & punctuation. But I will also add S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G.

If your post starts reading like a 1st grader that has been left back twice, I am out of there...........
 
Proper spelling and grammar make you look intelligent. The absence of it...not so much.
 
Bill D said:
Proper spelling and grammar make you look intelligent. The absence of it...not so much.
Click to expand...

I agree with this to a point. The major exception being people where English is a second language. I have received some emails from people at work where I could hardly follow their train of thought, but they have turned out to be some of the most brilliant people I have ever worked with. They just haven't "mastered" the English language quite yet.

I typically find I am less affected by poor spelling than I am with the lack of punctuation and capitalization. I find posts with no clearly defined sentences all but impossible to read and usually will not bother.
 
MIsnowman said:
The major exception being people where English is a second language.
Click to expand...

This is, of course, an exception.

My point was for the posters who are from this country, but find that proper spelling, punctuation, etc. is just too time-consuming/bothersome.

(I could have grammatically butchered this post, and saved myself a cool 8 seconds!)
 
Bill D said:
Proper spelling and grammar make you look intelligent.

The absence of it...not so much.
Click to expand...


This is true. I never judge as like mentioned previous, we have people on this forum where English is not their primary language.


For those that English is their primary language - well.... it does "look" better for a person if they can do even simple things like start a sentence with a capital letter and end a sentence with a period.


Not a deal breaker on a free-wheeling platform like this though.


:)
 
:bump:


Just my small effort to help people get the text they type read.

People struggle to read HUGE chunks of text, especially on electronic devices. It's also difficult and hard on they eyes to read huge chunks of text on paper.

When you make it difficult for people to read what you write- they will simply >click< away.

Thus you defeat yourself and your goal.


Just trying to help folks, from a guy that types a lot and wants people to find his writing - easy to read.



:cheers:
 
I always try to keep this in mind and I also try to use my best English grammar

It is true people, including myself, will look away if you type in huge chunks of text.

A little effort goes a long way.
 
Bill D said:
It is true people, including myself, will look away if you type in huge chunks of text.
Click to expand...


What a lot of our members don't know, maybe don't even pay attention, but when someone types in a HUGE CHUNK OF TEXT - before I reply to them I edit their post and format simply to make it easier for ME to read.

I also edit people's posts and put space between their images. Most people don't think, or don't know how to put a space between their images. So they don't. Then what happens is all their images run together. This also makes it hard on the human eyes to digest.

So when I'm interacting with someone that has piles of pictures with no breaks - I edit their post and simply locate the closing tag for the image coding, place my cursor there and then hit the old [ENTER] key twice.

BOOM - now the pictures have a little white space between them to make it easier for the human eyeballs to take in the images AND it foces the images to line-up in a linear manner instead of all piled together.


Just trying to help others help themselves.



:laughing:
 
This is an excellent post and glad it was revived. Another annoying error is when people write ALL IN CAPS. I think the vernacularization for this is that it's akin to Screaming.
 
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