One question that’s come up a few times, recently…❓
Is, “why do you use so many ellipses when you write?”
There are a few reasons…👇
And I’ll try and break them down for you in this article.
My general rule of thumb is that I use ellipses when composing a sentence that contains multiple ideas.
In other words, there’s only one idea per line…
And, I typically shun compound sentences.
Why?
Readability and comprehension.
People seem to forget that the average American reads at a 7th-grade level…📖
Which means the most effective way to communicate with them is through short sentences.
Plus, in addition to that…
There are multiple studies showing that once a sentence gets longer than fourteen words…
Reading comprehension starts to drop dramatically.
This creates a conundrum.
Because it’s not necessarily easy to write short, compact sentences all the time (unless you’re Ernest Hemingway)…
But, by breaking up those sentences into multiple lines…
You turn a “long sentence” into several easily digestible little ones.
So, that’s one of the biggest reasons why I use ellipses…
And another big reason is psychological.
When a viewer comes to my sales letter, or reads an article from me…
And they see a bunch of short little lines…
Psychologically, the content looks much less intimidating to them.
If I go to a page and see a bunch of dense paragraphs, I typically think, “ugh I don’t have time to read this”…
But, if I see a bunch of short lines…
I think, “well, I’ll at least start skimming.”
Make sense?
Oh, and also…
I tend to write in a style that’s very conversational, too…
And in some respects, my ellipses are indicating where I’d naturally pause or take a breath in the conv
ersation, even if it was mid-sentence.
So yeah, these are some of the reasons why I have so many ellipses in my articles and my sales copy…
And I wanted to share.
– SPG
P.S. To help drive the point home…
Think about what you just read…
Then, check this out:
“One question that’s come up a few times recently is why I use so many ellipses when I write? There are a few reasons and I’ll try and break them down for you in this article. My general rule of thumb is that I use ellipses when composing a sentence that contains multiple ideas. In other words, there’s only one idea per line and I typically shun compound sentences. Why? Readability and comprehension.
People seem to forget that the average American reads at a 7th-grade level, which means the most effective way to communicate with them is through short sentences. Plus, in addition to that, there are multiple studies showing that once a sentence gets longer than fourteen words reading comprehension starts to drop dramatically. This creates a conundrum because it’s not necessarily easy to write short, compact sentences all the time (unless you’re Ernest Hemingway). But by breaking up those sentences into multiple lines, you turn a “long sentence” into several easily digestible little ones.
So that’s one of the biggest reasons why I use ellipses, and another big reason is psychological. When a viewer comes to my sales letter, or reads an article from me, and they see a bunch of short little lines, psychologically the content looks much less intimidating. If I get to a page and see a bunch of dense paragraphs, I typically think, “ugh I don’t have time to read this.” But, if I see a bunch of short lines I think, “well I’ll at least start skimming.” Make sense?
Oh and also, I tend to write in a style that’s very conversational too. And in some respects, my ellipses are indicating where I’d naturally pause or take a breath in the conversation, even if it was mid-sentence. So yeah, these are some of the reasons why I have so many ellipses in my articles and sales copy.”
^^ That’s the same content, but without ellipses.
I understand that some of you would see this and be totally fine with it…
But honestly, a lot of people would say, “I’ll come back to reading this later,” and then they never would.
P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.
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