5 ms·

Those are some nice tips, but I have to question the use of bold font, it seems to come off as too aggressive.

Sverigevader 7y ago
I agree and I've been using italic instead of bold font for this reason. It's like you're whispering something which makes people listen more intently and hopefully read more intently.
- Complexicate 7y ago
  I have never read italics as whispering. I usually read it as emphasis or stress. I read ALL CAPS as shouting. I read bold as important. I only see bold as aggressive if emotionally charged language is bolded (ie: marked as important by the writer). I find it interesting that others may still perceive these differently than either of us.
- mirekrusin 7y ago
  It's very strange to me that some people actually don't like bold text to emphasize relevant parts. It's the easiest way to aid speed reading/allowing mental prose-to-bullet point conversion. For me it's a sign of respect for time of the reader who is likely overwhelmed with information and wants to focus on the most important parts. I've written some technical documents this way. In one company I got explicit email that this helped a lot and was great idea. Implementation that followed went smoothly. In other company it has been seen as silly, all emphasis was removed, bullet points expanded to prose, useless brochure like logos/typography added - of course I'm biased but this document stands in my head as the shittiest/least useful/confusing/verbose documents I had to deal with. I think to really appreciate this approach you'd have to test it yourself on 50 page document and discover how fast you can digest 80% of information included. Likely practicing speed reading will help to appreciate it more. It's a bit like medium highlights - but it's designed by the author, it can be really, really useful, but it's niche and very rare to see unfortunately.
  - LeonB 7y ago
    Although I feel the same surprise as you, (I didn’t realise some people would interpret bold as yelling/condescension) ... I’m going to change the way I use it. I can’t control the reader, only my writing, so I’ll switch to italics or even monospace (I’ll test both)
fr1tkot 7y ago
To me, it feels like the sender wants to yell particular words at me because they feel like I'm not capabale of digesting entire sentences.
midgetjones 7y ago
Totally agree. Sometimes I'll use a monospace font for highlighting things in a generic way without it looking condescending.
patsplat 7y ago
Agreed. I generally delete everything but the bold sentences.
xtracto 7y ago
Actually the first example is very telling. It seems the writer is using bold face to try to emphasize part of the sentence that doesn't matter that much. The first sentence I'd the important, the second with the "why" (the blah blah) doesn't matter

I agree and I've been using italic instead of bold font for this reason. It's like you're whispering something which makes people listen more intently and hopefully read more intently.

Complexicate 7y ago
I have never read italics as whispering. I usually read it as emphasis or stress. I read ALL CAPS as shouting. I read bold as important. I only see bold as aggressive if emotionally charged language is bolded (ie: marked as important by the writer). I find it interesting that others may still perceive these differently than either of us.
mirekrusin 7y ago
It's very strange to me that some people actually don't like bold text to emphasize relevant parts. It's the easiest way to aid speed reading/allowing mental prose-to-bullet point conversion. For me it's a sign of respect for time of the reader who is likely overwhelmed with information and wants to focus on the most important parts. I've written some technical documents this way. In one company I got explicit email that this helped a lot and was great idea. Implementation that followed went smoothly. In other company it has been seen as silly, all emphasis was removed, bullet points expanded to prose, useless brochure like logos/typography added - of course I'm biased but this document stands in my head as the shittiest/least useful/confusing/verbose documents I had to deal with. I think to really appreciate this approach you'd have to test it yourself on 50 page document and discover how fast you can digest 80% of information included. Likely practicing speed reading will help to appreciate it more. It's a bit like medium highlights - but it's designed by the author, it can be really, really useful, but it's niche and very rare to see unfortunately.
- LeonB 7y ago
  Although I feel the same surprise as you, (I didn’t realise some people would interpret bold as yelling/condescension) ... I’m going to change the way I use it. I can’t control the reader, only my writing, so I’ll switch to italics or even monospace (I’ll test both)

fr1tkot 7y ago

To me, it feels like the sender wants to yell particular words at me because they feel like I'm not capabale of digesting entire sentences.

midgetjones 7y ago

Totally agree. Sometimes I'll use a monospace font for highlighting things in a generic way without it looking condescending.

patsplat 7y ago

Agreed. I generally delete everything but the bold sentences.

xtracto 7y ago

Actually the first example is very telling. It seems the writer is using bold face to try to emphasize part of the sentence that doesn't matter that much. The first sentence I'd the important, the second with the "why" (the blah blah) doesn't matter