Making The Case For White Space…Don’t Blog Without It!
White space, or unused spaces in the electromagnetic spectrum that separate broadcast channels, is a hot issue, with technology companies pressing the FCC to make them available for commercial use, while TV broadcasters claim that their use will interfere with digital television broadcasts.
But another group of digital broadcasters needs white space as well-between the paragraphs of their blogs. Reading online text is a different experience from reading printed text-and your blog needs to allow for those differences.
When reading print, the words fade with the flow of the text in the reader’s mind. But when reading online text, the reader either quickly skims the text before moving to the next page, or reads the work more slowly than an electronic text, with more concentration on each word.
One important formatting difference between print and online text: whenever you start a new paragraph, separate it from your previous one by leaving a line of blank text between the two paragraphs.
Also, forget your grade school teacher’s admonitions about indenting the first line of each paragraph. Online readers find indentations distracting. Justify your entire text to the left margin with no indentations.
Finally, and probably most important: verbosity is a no-no. Paragraphs themselves need to be clearly written and to the point. Try to limit paragraphs to about six sentences. If you can cut a phrase or sentence without losing the gist of your message, by all means do it.
Keep your readers by making every word of your text, and the space around it, count.
