Enhance Readability with These Guidelines

"Vigorous writing is concise." - William Strunk Jr. - "The Elements of Style", 1919

Many companies are tapping the power of their employee base to help create useful, relevant and brand-centric content for company blog sites. In that regard, I have advised my coaching clients to consider establishing and communicating guidelines for blog article writers to help enhance readability, "gravity," and consistency of general "look and feel" of posted articles.

Commonly communicated guidelines include the following, which you'll generally note when reading articles posted on many of the more popular blog sites:

• Come up with a catchy article title that is not too long
• Keep the length of the blog article to 500 words or less
• Use eye-catching photos or graphics that help communicate some key element or key theme of the article
• Use bullet points and short paragraphs, allowing plenty of white space
• Use bolding to highlight key thoughts and phrases
• Incorporate a thoughtful quote that resonates well with the spirit of the article content
• End the article with a call to action: Ask a question; Suggest an action; Make a statement that challenges the reader's thinking -- but AVOID SELLING messages
• Include a picture and contact information for the author with a link back to the blog site home page
• Spell-check and proofread your article carefully. Read it back to yourself out-loud. Ask a friend or colleague to review it too

What else do YOU do to improve the readability of your blog articles?

---

Andy Robinson, Executive Coach
Co-host, Career Success Radio Show
A leading authority on career success; 15-year executive coaching veteran
Contact: Andy@CareerSuccessCommunity.com

www.CareerSuccessCommunity.com - The Premier Interactive Career Development Community