5: Structure

Just when you thought you’d finished all the hard work of writing and editing, here comes another consideration: structure, or how you’re going to place your text on the page.It might seem like a minor consideration, but the layout of your work can make a huge difference to the impact it has and whether or not anyone reads it.

No-one’s going to take time to penetrate a huge wall of text, so you need to break it into bite-sized chunks. There are a number of ways that you can go about it…

Headings
By adding headings, you’re making life easy for your reader, making it a doddle for them to find the information they want quickly.

Bold text
Use bold within paragraphs to pick out key points of interest, or to act as quick guide to the contents.

Short paragraphs
With promotional copy, you’re not writing an essay. No-one’s marking your work with a red pen, so you can bend the rules a bit and make your paragraphs shorter than usual. It makes your text more accessible, and easier on the eye.

Indentation
A good way of highlighting text, or picking out a quotation.

Bullet points
Ideal for highlighting short, snappy information BUT don’t go bullet-point crazy. More than 5 or 6 bullet points and you’re not highlighting anything anymore. Full pages of bullet points earn a slap across the back of the legs with a ruler.

Finally, think about the shape that your copy makes on the page. The eye naturally sweeps in an arc from top left to bottom right, so make sure that your copy works with that, rather than against it… and remember that whatever you place in the top left-hand corner is what people will look at first – so make the most of it!

Read Part 6: Publishing your work