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Why Reading Is Becoming Skimming on the Internet

The writers have only ten seconds to convince the reader

By Dew LangrialPublished 2 years ago 6 min read
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If the reader does not find it interesting, she'll quit in ten seconds. Image by rawpixel

Everyone can say whatever they like on blogging and social media platforms. The readers have to decide whether they want to read an article or not.

They like to skim and scan an article before deciding to read it.

Professor Maryanne Wolf, Director of the Center for Dyslexia at UCLA, says that skimming is the new normal, and it is affecting society profoundly. She explains in an article in The Guardian, "When the reading brain skims texts, we don't have time to grasp complexity, to understand another's feelings or to perceive beauty. We need a new literacy for the digital age."

The new literacy can be based on a deeper understanding of the issue. What is the enemy of a good reading experience?

How can you write something that grabs the attention of a skimmer and a scanner that they read from the start to the end? For this, you'll have to know why readers skim and how they scan information on a page.

Why readers skim

The readers are trying to get a quick overview. They have a lot of options. Often they are trying to answer the question: what's in it for me?

Mark Edmundson, an English literature scholar, says skimming is a result of the 'cognitive impatience' of online readers. He explains that many college students avoid the classic literature of the 19th and 20th centuries because they don't have the patience to read more lengthy and complicated texts.

How they scan

The readers scroll up and down to identify the main idea by looking at the construction of the article. They focus only on the headings, subheadings, definitions, and conclusions.

Ziming Liu, professor of library and information science at San Jose State University, showed in a study that the screen-based readers spend more time on browsing and scanning, keyword spotting, one-time reading, non-linear reading, and reading more selectively; while less time is spent on in-depth reading and concentrated reading.

The readers use an F or Z pattern. They sample the first line and then word-spot the rest of the text. When the reading brain scans like this, deep reading becomes impossible.

"I skim much more Html pages than I do with printed materials." ~ A participant in Ziming Liu's study said

A brief history of reading styles

By the year 1750, the popular reading style underwent a significant change. Before that, the readers would read intensively. They had a few books to read, and they would read slowly and repeatedly.

By the year 1800, the readers started to read texts extensively. They had periodicals and newspapers. They would read them once before moving on to the next item. This reading style has changed dramatically because of the digital screens and the internet.

The brain is handling the new reading styles by rewiring itself

The neurons that handle the brain's ability to read are subtly and rapidly changing - a development that is going to affect everyone, from toddlers to adults.

Maryanne Wolf, in her book, 'Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World,' proposes that we need to develop a new kind of brain - a "bi-literate" reading mind capable of grasping deep thoughts in digital as well as printed form.

What the writers need to know

A modern reader would not read anything less than the best. It can mean that a million people read only one or two or three articles. Google helps the readers to choose by showing the trending results from trustworthy sites.

What can a writer do to stand out? Produce quality that others cannot match.

While writing, you must keep the latest trends of reading in mind. Your article's structure and formatting should support skimming and scanning to make the selection process easy for the reader.

A writer must ask these questions

  • Do I want to write in a way that helps the reader to remember what she reads?
  • How much time can I save for the reader through better research work?
  • Can I help the reader to understand the concepts with more examples or better stories?
  • Can I convince the reader about the quality of my article by explaining related concepts?
  • Can I provide a nugget of knowledge that may be unique for the reader?
  • Can I compete with the best story on the chosen topic that is already sitting on the internet?
  • Is my article rigorous and my point of view correct?
  • How difficult is my way of presentation of ideas to the readers?
  • Have I explained the facts and reasons?
  • How will the reader benefit from what I have written in my article or essay?
  • Is the language of the piece easy to follow?
  • Is my style of writing interesting?
  • Did I mention additional resources for the reader to know more?

A writer must use better structure and formatting

If you are a new writer, keep your articles short. 600–1000 words are the right length for beginners.

Use a more descriptive heading. A good headline is as important as the entire article.

Your subheading should reflect the core idea of your article. It should help the reader in making the decision.

Divide your work into sections. It allows the reader to test the quality of a particular segment.

Bullet points are good. Use them where you wish to touch many smaller topics.

Use numbered lists. Where sequence matters, use the numbered lists.

Use suitable formatting. Use bold, italic, pull quotes, and highlighting to format your article.

Short paragraphs. Your paragraphs should be two, three, or four lines long.

Write in a conversational tone. Online writing is different from scholarly essays or even newspaper articles.

Use social media to interact with your readers. Create a group of your loyal followers or fans to keep in touch.

Provide links to your supporting material and additional information. When your readers can see your supporting links, they start trusting your work. It also increases the likelihood that they will remember your name.

If you can keep it interesting, do not care for the length of the piece. If you are an expert in a field and you can keep your readers engaged for a long time, go for the long form. You must have noticed how time flies by when you are watching a blockbuster movie. But a boring film doesn't seem to end.

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Conclusion

Professor Maryanne Wolf is convinced that skimming is here to stay - though she does not like this new trend. She says, "We are left with a more short-circuited brain. The evidence from our eye movement research is that skimming is the new normal, and we're becoming browsers and word spotters."

Skimming and scanning are the results of our progress, and nobody can do anything about it. Poynter Institute conducted a study as early as the year 2000 and noted that the online users like to "do a lot of brief scanning, foraging quickly through many article summaries, but when their interest is caught they will dive into a particular topic or article in depth."

It is a challenge for the writers. The readers on the internet are looking for nothing but the best content.

The readers do not forgive because their time is valuable. In a fast-paced information-centric world, they can spare only ten seconds to evaluate if the writer fulfills their information needs before opting out.

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A version of this story was published on medium.com.

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About the Creator

Dew Langrial

A Thinker, Writer & Storyteller. Living life in awe of it all. Hoping to make sense. Working on my tech startup.

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