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Website design: Breaking up blocks of text

Good website design: Breaking up blocks of text

 

People will be more likely to read your information if you present it in short chunks using

  • bullet points
  • bold type
  • removing excess words to make it as short as possible
  • lots of white space

Look at the examples below. Which one would you rather read online, "Block" or "Break it up!" ?

Block

 

When you are reading the news, you will notice that legitimate media outlets take steps to help readers clearly identify fact from opinion. Most news articles are meant to simply report the facts journalists have gathered and observed about a particular topic. However, media outlets also publish opinion articles (commonly known as op-eds) and letters to the editor. Many news websites now keep these analyses and opinions under a separate tab, usually marking them as OPINION (or OP-ED), EDITORIAL, COLUMN, or LETTER TO THE EDITOR to show readers what is not standard news. This is an easy way to quickly identify what you are about to read.

 

Otis, Cindy L. True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News. Fiewel and Friends. 2020.

 

Break it up!

 

Identify fact from opinion in the news

Legitimate media outlets publish two kinds of articles

  • Fact articles, which give information about topics. Most news stories are fact articles.
  • Opinion articles, which give expert or notable opinions on topics.

Many news websites put opinion articles into separate sections or tabs, marking them 

  • Opinion (or Op-Ed)
  • Editorial
  • Column
  • Letter to the Editor

so you know what you are reading.