: Re: Do 'text walls' scare off readers? A comment on a recent question of mine claims Right, so that's [large unformatted text blocks scaring off some readers in certain contexts is] a myth.

@Samaraweera193

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There are two kinds of density of text. It is common to find one author (e.g. Karl Marx) writing text that is dense in both senses, but let's tease the two types apart:

One way of making text dense is to write long, convoluted sentences that the reader has to go back over one or more times to figure out.
Another way is to have long paragraphs, perhaps spanning more than one page!

The extreme opposite to density type #2 is the bulleted list -- think of how text is laid out in how-to books such as ____ for Idiots.

I have proposed an edit to your question that shows how I edit papers in the social sciences. I try to honor the idea the author is trying to get across, but make it so the reader can "get" it on the first pass. I think that comparing your original version and the edited version may make it easier for you to understand what I'm saying about convoluted sentences.

Original:

This is surprising to me as I have had requests from multiple people throughout my life who seem quite interested in the content of something (short and non-fictional) I've written that I avoid text walls in the future as, while the various things were not problematic to read once they began, they significantly delayed reading it because of the (lack of) formatting and the correlated perceived density of the text.

Edited:

This was surprising to read. Multiple people throughout my life who've been quite interested in the content of short, nonfiction pieces I've written have requested that I avoid 'walls of text' in the future. While the density on the page was not problematic for them once they actually read the piece, they had significantly delayed reading it because of the lack of paragraphing and other formatting.

My editor (my spouse) has helped me shorten and simplify my sentences over the years, without sacrificing the complexity of my ideas by telling me regularly, "Think Hemingway."

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