Blog like you’re writing for a 14-year old girl

What do newspapers and online reports have in common? They’re both written at an eighth-grade level or lower. Experts say that some papers are even written at a fifth-grade level! Not sure what it’s like in other countries but that’s the case for the US.

Anyway, one way to measure the level of writing complexity is paragraph size (along with sentence structure and vocabulary). For this article, let’s dive a little deeper on that theory.

First, let’s take a look at The Wall Street Journal online. I grabbed the first article under the Markets page and here’s what I found:

Stocks Slide as Risk Loses Favor

Average paragraph: 33 words
Shortest paragraph: 12 words
Longest paragraph: 69 words

Now let’s examine the first article I found under CosmoGirl’s Daily Kiss Blog:

Sexy Halloween Costumes – Love it or Leave it?

Average paragraph: 76 words
Shortest paragraph: 26 words
Longest paragraph: 122 words

Who do you think the average WSJ reader is? And FYI, CosmoGirl’s target audience is teenage girls. The latter has more massive paragraphs! Now I don’t want to break down sentence structures or vocabulary between the two, but the key is — you have to make articles easy to read.

Sure, it’s not a significant sampling, but you get the idea. People have short attention spans. They want quick points, and they want them broken up into small chunks.

I don’t know about you but other than my niece, I don’t know too many 14-year olds. Fortunately, I am great friends with a well-known sports writer in the NYC area, and he has blessed my following sentiments for writing good articles.

Shock value works – Use a title that captures the attention of a curious mind.
What goes around, comes around – Open with a to-the-point paragraph or statement and conclude with the same point.
Holy wall of text! – Keep short paragraphs of 25-100 words.
Jargon rules – Use buzzwords that are relevant to your audience (WSJ article used ‘risk aversion’ and ‘volatility’ while CG article used ‘flaunt’ and ‘xoxo’).
No more books! – Make sure readers do not need dictionaries or thesauruses.
Kid-tested, kid-approved – If you can’t pass it out to an elementary school to read, your article is written for a level too high for the masses.

Writing for a 14-year old doesn’t mean write like a 14-year old. We don’t have editors, so we’re going to have typos and grammatically incorrect sentences. Keeping those to a minimum still holds true. We also still have to be good storytellers and be able to get our ideas across. We have to do it in a way that appeals to the general public.

How to Know if Your Website is Awesome (or Needs Some Work)

Hey there! 🌟 So, you’ve got a website, or maybe you're just curious about what makes a website good or bad. Either way, it’s super cool that you’re here wanting to learn more! Let’s dive into the basics of how to know if a website is awesome or if it needs some love.

1. Easy to Use

Imagine you’re at a new mall. Would you want to walk around lost, not knowing where anything is? Nope! Websites are like that too. A good website should be easy to navigate. You should know exactly where to go to find what you’re looking for without getting lost or frustrated.

2. Looks Pretty

Just like a cute outfit can make you feel fab, a pretty website design can make you want to stick around. Colors, fonts, and images should all work together to make the site look nice and inviting. If a website looks old or messy, it’s like wearing mismatched socks — not a great look!

3. Loads Fast

You know how annoying it is when you're waiting for a video to load and it just keeps buffering? Ugh, the worst! Websites are the same. If a website takes too long to load, people will just leave. Fast is fabulous!

4. Works on Your Phone

Most of us use our phones more than computers these days. A good website should look just as great on your phone as it does on a laptop. If you have to pinch and zoom a lot, or things look squished, that's a sign the website isn’t mobile-friendly. No one has time for that!

5. Has Great Content

Think of a website like a good book or your favorite YouTube channel. It should have interesting stuff that you actually want to see. Whether it's blog posts, videos, or cool pictures, the content should be fun, informative, or both! If the content is boring or doesn’t make sense, you’re probably not going to stick around.

6. Keeps You Safe

This one might sound a little boring, but it’s super important! Good websites keep your information safe. If you’re buying something or signing up for a newsletter, you want to make sure the website has security (like that little padlock icon next to the web address). It’s like having a guard dog for your data!

7. Searchable on Google

Ever tried to find something online and no matter how hard you look, it just doesn’t come up? Annoying, right? A good website should be easy to find on Google. This means it’s well-optimized for search engines. Big words, but basically, it just means Google likes it!

8. Listens to Its Visitors

The best websites care about what their visitors think. They might have surveys, comment sections, or even just really good contact forms. If visitors are saying a website is hard to use or something’s broken, the website should listen and fix it!

So, How Good is Your Website?

You can give any website a quick check using these points. And if it doesn’t pass, no worries — there’s always room to make things better! Whether you’re just curious or thinking about making your own site one day, knowing what makes a website great is a superpower.

Happy browsing, future website guru! 🌈💻✨

Remember, a pubescent-minded blogger is a good blogger.