Week 5: Reader-Friendly Editing and Format

Image by tanakawho via Flickr

The things that make a photograph dramatic — strong contrast and intriguing shapes — also work to make a blog post that draws attention and is easy to read.

You want the reader to come back to your blog and read more, right?

This week in our blogging class, we will learn how to make reading your posts easy and fun!

Editing Practice

But first, let’s warm up our brains with some editing practice. We write blog posts for many reasons, and our purposes will affect both what we write and how we say it.

Orally in Class: pages 24-25.

On Your Own: Do as much of pages 26-27 as you like.

Extra Tip: What are your purposes for writing a blog post? For some good ideas, check out my post How Can You Improve Your Blog Today?

How to Make Your Blog Posts More Interesting

Nothing is more difficult to read online than a long, gray block of text, but that is how most beginning bloggers tend to write. Long paragraphs are fine for a first draft, but then click Save Draft and Preview.

Image by fRandi-Shooters via Flickr

Go back and edit your post with a reader’s eye. Use the Principles of Design to make your blog posts appealing.

In particular, look for:

Balance
Big and small, left and right, dark and light — all these are things that can add balance to your blog post. For instance, don’t let all your pictures sit in the same position. Move some to the left and some to the right. And balance gray paragraph text with nice, dark headings.

White Space
Break up long paragraphs into shorter chunks. And use lists to add more space around your text.

Image by zxzxlch via Flickr

For more about making your blog posts easy to read, check out Reader-Friendly Editing.

To the Computers!

Let’s use our classroom computer time to get a head start on your homework. This week you have three options:

1. Write and publish at least one new blog post. Use formatting to make it easy to read.

2. Or go back and improve the formatting of one of your earlier posts.

3. Leave a comment on at least one classmate’s blog. (The more, the merrier!)

“Extra Credit”: Challenge Yourself to Blog

Have you tried any of the challenges at Challenge Yourself to Blog? Check them out and try one this week!