To the Very Fine Person Who Highlights Almost Every Line in My Pieces

You know who you are. I’m not going to ‘out’ you but you NEED to cut it out!

I WROTE THIS PIECE A YEAR AGO AND YOU CONTINUE TO MUTILATE OTHER WRITERS’ WORK TO THE POINT THAT iT iS DIFFICULT TO READ, EVEN UNREADABLE. YOU ARE NOT BEING FAIR TO ALL WHO WRITE ON MEDIUM!

Photo by Frans Van Heerden on Pexels

Dear Compulsive Highlighter:

Genuine praise from you and other readers is desirable and very welcome indeed. Snarky comments come with the territory, along with being ignored or garnering very few reads, followers, and/or claps, and making little or no money.

But highlighting is in a class unto itself. Sui generis, as we say in the law.

Below are the problems you create for writers by highlighting every line (or almost every line) in a Medium piece, in case you are not aware. Because I assume your intentions are good or that compulsive highlighting is a reflex you have trouble controlling.

1. If everything in the piece is important enough to highlight, then nothing is.
2. A lot of highlighting is distracting. It makes the piece look cluttered. It…