Do you have the same problem as many people do – so much to read and so little time?
That’s where the art of A.R.T. comes in. A.R.T. stands for Average Reading Time, how long it will take the average person to read the words in a piece, whether it be ad copy, a blog post or anything else.
We have our favorite blogs, and Ann Wylie’s Communications e-zine rises to the top. Wylie, a communications educator, writes about improving writing skills so that people will stop and pay attention.
Her recent A.R.T. post emphasized writing a piece short enough that people will read it. Most people can read about 200 words a minute.
“Before you hit the keyboard, determine how much time you’d expect readers to spend reading each piece you write or assign and multiply that time, in minutes, by 200,” Wylie said.
Tell your readers up front how long it will take to read the piece. For this blog post, we could have told you at the top it would take you exactly one minute to read.
That’s good information for making sure that your target audience is actually reading the words you spend your time composing.
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