Write for How People Read

Skimmers decide what to read based on the first sentence. They skim documents and look for key points. When you write for skimmers, start with the main point. In an e-mail, use the subject line to convey what the e-mail is about. Use bullets or boldface to highlight key facts, dates or figures.

Skeptics tend to read a document thoroughly and want to see documentation and facts to support statements. Use lots of supporting details and evidence and provide examples, statistics, factual anecdotes to support everything.

For both, organize the body of your document as an inverted pyramid--place the most important information first and drill down to the least important. In this way, both types of readers get what they want.