Write for Scanning
What does a reader do before they decide to read?
The idea
Structure helps readers find meaning before reading every word.
In the real world
Short paragraphs and informative headings reduce effort.
Going deeper
Readers scan before they read, and the scan decides whether reading happens. What they are looking for is not the argument but whether the document concerns them, which parts do, and how much effort it will take.
Structure answers all three before any prose is consumed. Informative headings, short paragraphs and a visible shape let someone locate their part and commit to that. An unbroken page offers no way to make that judgement except by reading it, so the rational response is to defer — and deferral, in practice, is permanent.
Where it stops applying
Structure imposed on an argument that genuinely needs to build can fragment it. Some pieces should be read whole, and their job is to earn that with the opening rather than to fake it with headings.
Why it matters
Most readers scan first and commit second, so structure determines whether the content is ever reached.
Try this today
Cut one paragraph into a point and supporting detail.
Test yourself
A well-argued three-page memo in unbroken paragraphs gets no substantive replies. The same argument with headings and short paragraphs gets four. What changed?
Show the answer
The cost of finding out whether it was relevant. Structure lets a reader locate the parts that concern them before committing to the whole; without it, the first decision is to defer, and deferral is permanent.
Learn this in the feed Answering from memory, then again days later, is what makes it stick.