Learn to Paragraph
You Owe It to Your Reader
Substackers should write in paragraphs, not single lines.
It’s tiring to read anything of substance in single lines.
The structure, known as the paragraph helps the reader.
It helps the reader follow your argument because it isn’t broken up by white space.
The reader takes white space as a signal that your subtopic has shifted.
But it hasn’t.
It’s just that the writer is aping advertising style on the theory that single lines carry more punch.
Or that your reader is too stupid or too debilitated by reading media posts that he can’t concentrate for more than twenty words.
What can you communicate to such a reader anyway?
The spacing of text, like the text itself, gives the reader information.
When you decide to ignore that fact, or if you haven’t learned it, you make your reading harder to follow than it should be.
Stop doing it.
THANK YOU. This type of writing pervades Substack, Medium, and especially LinkedIn. I agree the writers think it's punchy but to me it shows a lack of respect for your readers' intelligence and attention span.