The Ideal Length for Online Stories, or How to Avoid the Dead Zone

The Quartz Curve

What’s the ideal length for online stories? 

That’s a question that has challenged writers since the advent of the Internet.

The mantra for some time has been shorter is better, considering that Canadians today have the attention spans of goldfish.

But is that true?

The answer is yes—and no.

Research indicates that while people like shorter stories, they also read longer ones.

That’s what the business news website Quartz discovered in 2013.

Based on its experience with its website, it found the best user engagement was with stories below 500 words, or more than 800.

In between, said editor Kevin Delaney, “is the place you don’t want to be.”

"People read short, fast content on the web,” he said, but also long-form analytical pieces.

And why is that?

Articles of between 500 and 800 words are too long to be sharable, he said, but too short to be in-depth.

What catches attention, he suggested, was short, sharp takes on news stories that are creative and say something new, or long in-depth articles providing strong detailed narrative or insightful analysis.

The stuff in between is the dead zone—articles that provide detail but no insight.

This finding was so popular, it became known as the “Quartz Curve.”

But that was in 2013—a million years ago in Internet time.

What about today?

In fall Emily Loewen, Digital Content Coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee Canada, did research to find what stories were most popular on that organization’s website.

She found that the best-read stories were about what MCC’s supporters were doing to help, humanitarian disasters, and the agency’s observations about events in the news.

She also found some interesting information about reader engagement and story length.

Of stories under 500 words, 60% were read all the way to the end.

For stories between 501-1,000 words, 30% were read all the way.

1,000 to 1,501? 18% were read to the end.

32% of stories 1,500 to 2,001 words were read all the way.

What about 2,001 or higher? 0% were read all the way.

Loewen’s research seems to confirm the “Quartz curve”—although MCC’s maximum seems to be on the higher end.

It also indicates that no story should be longer than 2,000 words.

Her research also shows what we intuitively know: Lots of people never make it to the end of our stories, whether they are short or long.

Which makes it all the more important to use the pyramid style of writing—making sure the most important information is near the top of every story.

As a matter of interest, this post is 444 words long—which means I’ve avoided the dreaded dead zone.

Are You Smarter Than a 7th Grader? When Writing, Maybe You Shouldn't Be

A popular TV show asks adults if they are smarter than 5th graders. The assumption is they should be.

When it comes to writing for the general public, maybe that's wrong—by a couple of grades, or three.

Studies in the U.S. show that the average American reads at the grade 7-9 level. I have no reason to believe it is any different in Canada.

Newspapers know this; they are typically written to the grade nine level.

Popular novels by people like John Grisham, Tom Clancy and Stephen King are written at the grade seven level.

Romance novels are written at the grade five level.

Thoughts about reading levels came to mind last week when a well-respected Canadian NGO sent me a press release.

It wasn’t easy to read. It had long sentences and paragraphs, and lots of  big and complex words.

Curious, I put it through a readability test. Sure enough, it wasn’t just me: It got a grade level of 18, or “very difficult to read.”

In order to understand it, you’d need to be a college graduate, or above.

Which is fine, if this organization is targeting college graduates. But since it aims to serve and reach the general public, it has a problem.

It’s tempting to get all in a huff and decry the state of literacy today. But that won’t get us anywhere.

It’s much better to write so that people can read and understand what we are trying to say—especially if we want to enlist their support for our important causes.

Better to remember the advice of George Orwell: Never use a long word if a short one will do. Or Mark Twain, who said the following to a young boy seeking advice about writing:

"I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words, and brief sentences. That is the way to write English—it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; and don't let the fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.”

Twain’s books, by the way, are written at a fifth-grade level. He didn’t do so bad.

This post, by-the-way, comes in at between grades 5-7, or very easy to read. 

Here are some websites where you can check the readability your organization’s press releases and other materials:

Readabilityscore.com 

Readability Formulas 

For further reading:

Education Expert Says College Freshmen Read at the Grade Seven Level 

American High School Students Are Reading Books At5th-Grade-Appropriate Levels: Report

Know Your Readers (Plain Language Network) 

George Orwell's Tips for Good Writing

Good communicators need to be good writers. Press releases have a better chance of attracting media attention if they are well-written.

There are many tips for good writing, and over time I’ll share some on this blog. But some of the best come from English writer George Orwell.

In his 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language,  he shared the following tips.

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. (To that I would add: Avoid clichés like the plague!)

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. (Shorter sentences are better than long ones.)

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. (Not “he said,” but “he says.”)

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. (Keep it Simple, Stupid!)

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. (This Get-Out-Jail-Free card means if it sounds better when you break a rule, go ahead and break it.)

Since many of use learned or honed our writing in university, where we were taught that big words, long sentences, fulsome jargon and a certain cool-distance from the subject were signs of intelligence, these tips can be hard to accept and apply.

But they are absolutely essential for good day-to-day communication with the public and the media.