Formatting Tips to Make Your Writing Easy-to-Read on the Web

By Anuja Aggarwal

Writing is not only an art; it also needs a little planning, intelligence and knowledge. If your writing is not read, there is no point in making the effort. Therefore, it is essential to follow certain guidelines that will ensure that your writing actually gets read on the web. It's needless to say that the content has to be good and must be of interest to your readers. Here are some rules that you can follow to make your writing readable:

Use the right font and size

Choose a font style that's easy-to-read. Use tried and tested Arial, Verdana, and Tahoma family fonts on the web. MS Word point size 12 to 14 for titles, 10 to 11 for sub-headlines and 8 to 10 for paragraphs are generally accepted.

Use sub-headings and short paragraphs

To keep the attention of each reader going, you can divide your writing into sections that clearly show what each part is about. Breaking down your articles into smaller segments makes the content easier to remember and understand. When formatting you writing, ensure that a single line break appears between each paragraph.

Use numbered and bulleted lists

When you are writing instructions that should to be done in a sequence, use numbers instead of bullets. The same applies when you want to refer to specific items by number. If you feel numbers aren't really necessary, then use bullets. Bullet points are used often because they are visually appealing and make it easier to quickly read and understand the information.

Use illustrations to elaborate important points and processes

If you feel that some processes can be described in the form of a flowchart, then make one. They are easy to make in MS Office applications. You can quickly convert your numbered lists or bullets into a flowchart. Often complicated numbers can be represented in a better way through pie diagrams, tables, or graphs.

Use bold, italics or underline to show importance

When you want to exaggerate certain words from the rest of the text, you can use bold to emphasize them. If you need to accentuate a word in a boldface text, use bold italics. You must have convincing reasons for using bold-italics and underline. Avoid using all of them together.

Use indentation for depicting levels

There are two main types of first-line indent: normal and hanging. A normal indent indents the first line, which is of one centimeter. The hanging indent indents the rest of the text while leaving the first line in place with a hanging indent of one centimeter. Hanging indents are mainly used to align additional paragraph lines with the first line's tabbed indent. Numbered and bulleted lists are examples when hanging indents are typically applied. You may indent entire paragraphs to show different levels and to highlight excerpts.

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