More Ways to Accomplish Zero Comprehension
Some folks like to highlight specifics in their proposal by bolding some text.
Fifty percent of readers will lose their place and reduce comprehension to zero when they trip on a word in text that is bold. (All caps has similar consequences.)
So the next time your subject matter experts send you pages with key words highlighted, you can whip out your copy of Type & Layout: Are you Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes? by Colin Wheildon
The research proving the folly of using bold text, is documented in this book. This is one you need on your bookshelf if you write proposals.
However, pay attention to what they want to bold. These are the elements that are most important and you should edit to move those “benefits” to the front of the page, paragraph or section.
And no, highlighting or colored text has the same dreadful result.
I just visited a website which had found a way to highlight text as if a yellow highlighter had been used. Cute. And I can’t remember a single thing except that there were yellow bands of text scattered all over the page.
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