Scan-able Text

I though that because chapter 7 of Williams's Style is named "Concision" that it would be shorter than the other chapters (more concise!). Am I alone in this?

Whoa...I did not see the problem at first: "Imagine someone trying to learn the rules for playing chess" (79). Maybe it's because that's the way I speak, but I see how it can be improved especially in text.

More importantly, concision should be used in online texts. I've just finished reading (for another class) a chapter on the importance of concision for the web.

People on the internet:

• are scanners
• want bullets
• want numbers
• want white space between text
  
• desire immediacy
  

People on the internet are less apt to read long chunks of text even if you have a great style or flowery voice. Internet users don't like to read word-for-word, long paragraphs of text or even long sentences. Hell, long words while you're at it.

Because this is a New Media Journalism class and we learn the power of web journalism, I find the most important and applicable chapter from Style to be "Concision."