The Ferris Wheel of Shame

One below the belt too many.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Snippets and Sound Bites and Numbers, Oh My!

Commercials and societal networking land sites should be instruction us lessons - in selling and in writing. So should the presences of popular magazines.

What make all of these have got in common? Their Godheads cognize two things:

1) People today lose involvement quickly. In this fast nutrient society, we necessitate fast and to the point messages, whether they are in commercial messages or advice columns. The human race is a busy, merry-go-round kind of place, and thoughts and articles that make not take that into consideration will be lost to the masses.

2) Viewing Audience and readers like to have got their information broken down into pieces and numbered accordingly. They number on the authors and conceivers feeding them information in little pieces, and love having them summarized in boxes at the side of the commercial messages or articles.

You only have got to pick up a magazine to see that this is true. Every popular magazine today have articles titled, "Six Way to __________" or "Thirty-six New __________." Numbers are in almost every statute title of every magazine on the newsstands. Inside, besides being an article with numbered information, there will be a box at the side of each article, offering a speedy summary. Skimming an article is much easier this way, and many people believe they are too busy to read full articles or big balls of text. Give them what they want. Give them textual matter that reads like sound bites.

Marketers have got learned this as well. Articles on every free content web land site boasting articles with the same sorts of titles. "The Ten Things You Necessitate to Know about ___________" and "Six Lessons I Learned about ___________". Clicking on such as a statute statute title will undoubtedly demo an article with a listing of points relating to the title. Smart sellers will also have got a box with a summary in the organic structure of the article.

Years ago, we were told that newspapers were written for the norm eighth grader to be able to read. Now, those same newspapers --especially local 1s - gear wheel their authorship towards the norm 6th grader. Are that because little people are reading the newspaper? Of course of study not. It is because shorter and choppier sentences are more than similar to the commercial messages people watch (or at least listen to) on TV. They are more than like the pictures that everyone tickers on societal networking sites. And the businessperson, writer, or seller who desires to be noticed will larn from this and follow suit.

Is this portion of the dumbing down of America? Or is it the consequence of truly busy lives? It is probably both. But no substance what the reason, the consequence is the same. In order to be noticed, every writer, bourgeois and seller must larn this new article speak.

While in the past, it was "normal" for an article to necessitate 1,000 to 1,500 words for the message to be received, today's people desire no more than than 800 words. They prefer only 600, and often only read the summary.

To acquire read and noticed today, one must larn to follow the crowd or be left unread. While in the past, originative and different was the requisite, today people desire familiar words and phrases.

The author who declines to see the authorship on the wall (or in the magazine in hand), will travel unnoticed. The magazine that doesn't utilize snips and sound bites and Numbers will not be the favorite one.

And such as is life today. It is probably why the same authors now compose poesy in improver to prose and non-fiction articles. They still necessitate an mercantile establishment for their originative words.

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