Write for Skimmers
80% of readers rely on summaries
Great writers like to assume their readers are reading their article, book, and content word-by-word, not missing any line, clever pun, or context.
The truth is: Unless it’s a tweet or a novel, most people are not reading your work A-Z. Skimmers spend more time in the comments section than reading your piece, deciding how much worth has been assigned to your work to render it credible or a hard pass.
Readers are skimmers, and the sooner you leverage this truth — especially as an online writer — the greater the audience you’ll attract.
Superficial reading is the norm online
Whereas you read a novel and decipher its beauty and complexity, you don’t apply the same intensity and care to online content.
Instead, you browse, scan, keyword spot, share, and move on. This is categorized as “superficial reading” in a study on reading behavior. Not to mention—using AI tools to summarize and simplify as an alternative to actually reading.
If you are prone to superficial reading, so are your readers.
Write for skimmers
I know you are passionate about your craft and want to deliver high-quality written content that your readers can appreciate and enjoy.
That’s all right and admirable, but if you don’t also write for skimmers— you are leaving behind a large audience. Skimmers or impatient readers are readers who don’t read for the sake of enjoyment or leisure.
While some readers choose to read at a leisurely pace for the pure enjoyment of the activity, speed readers fall into a completely different category of reader. This category of readers is commonly referred to as impatient readers. This is because, unlike those who take a leisurely approach to reading, speed readers do not read for enjoyment, but rather for the sole purpose of collecting information.
Attention spans have declined significantly
The average human attention span is 8.25 seconds.
Imagine an attention span equivalent to a single lightning strike. Every time you write, think of how your reader loses focus, attention, and interest in the duration it takes a lightning strike to penetrate the sky.
Break down paragraphs to renew your reader’s attention span. Let’s say your paragraph contains 44 words (to be oddly specific). Assuming an average reading speed of about 200 words per minute, we can make an approximation:
- 44 words / 200 words per minute = 0.22 minutes
- 0.22 minutes * 60 seconds = 13.2 seconds
Considering your average reader has an eight-second attention span, they likely only read 70% of your paragraph and scanned through the rest.
Skimmers rely on summaries
This is especially true for online content. Summarizing what you’ve written is invaluable to readers, and even more so to you. You should be able to scrutinize your writing and pinpoint ‘what exactly am I saying?’.
If you can’t summarize your piece or extract its main takeaways, you don’t understand it well enough.
Readers share your work before they’ve finished reading it
Your reader not only takes your advice but recommends it to others.
If you are a reputable source to your readers, they will not hesitate to share your work before they have finished reading it. Similarly, if a skimmer finds that your headline or summary aligns with their ideology and beliefs, they will share your writing immediately.
This is the nature of content sharing online. Leverage this fact as a writer by becoming a trustworthy voice. Soon enough, skimmers will share your work promptly because they know what you stand for.
How to write for skimmers
Not everything you write is going to be for skimmers. That’s okay. But when you do, keep these tips in mind:
- Make your content scrolling friendly — Utilize lists, headings, and subheadings; they don’t have to be clickbaity, but they should be clear, concise, and engaging.
- Get to the point — skimmers are here for the quick takeaways.
- Emphasize— use bold, italic, and ALL CAPS to emphasize main points. Do this sparingly.
- Write in short paragraphs — remember the 8.25 seconds rule.
5. Stop telling your readers what to do, but how
Skimmers read content like they do a recipe — they go to the parts that matter.
To determine if your writing is skimmer-friendly, consider which parts of what you’ve written are actionable. What’s the ratio? Ten preachy paragraphs to one actionable step? That’s when you know you’re not writing for skimmers.
Skimmers are tired of opinions — they want tools and how-to’s.
Detail a process, a step-by-step routine, and win the skimmers.
Takeaways:
- Write for skimmers — they are a large audience.
- Learning how to write for skimmers changes the game.
- Remember the lightning rule.
Isra A. is a passionate writer based in Bahrain, a little island in the Middle East.
