August 30, 2023 • 25 mins
Back with another quick podcast about effective writing with OSPeas Felicity Brand, Jeffrey A. McGuire, Christine Bueller, and Chris Fenwick. We dissect the anatomy of our HEAD and SUBHEAD editing codes. Headers are powerful tools for long-form writing online. Break down long texts into meaningful chunks, aid readability, and provide structural support ... and add some soothing white space :-)
Learn how 'head' and 'subhead', though subtly distinct, are like the yin and yang of writing, where the former enhances readability while the latter fortifies structure. We also touch on bullet points and help us condense and catch the reader's eye.
Welcome to the Open Strategy Partners podcast, "Communicate, Connect, Grow!" At Open Strategy Partners, we specialize in strategic product communication. We help you communicate the value of what you do, connect you with the people who need to know about it, and grow.
To get in touch with us, follow what we’re doing, or learn about our Writer Enablement Workshops, you can:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Richards (00:07):
Hi, I'm Carl from OSP and this is Communicate
Connect Grow, the OSP podcast.
On today's episode, we'retalking about using subheadings
in your writing, with theediting codes head and subhead.
If you want to be a moreeffective writer, a more
transparent editor, developclear strategic thinking or
learn from our network of expertfriends and colleagues, that's
(00:29):
what we're here for.
We divide our episodes acrossthree themes Communicate,
connect and Grow.
This is a Communicate episodeand we're talking about breaking
up copy with our editorialcodes head and subhead.
These editing codes fall intothe flow and readability phase
(01:01):
of the editing process andthey're about chunking long form
writing into blocks and usingmeaningful subheadings.
In our documentation about thiscode, it says Relevant subheads
assist the reader by breakingup copy and defining the purpose
of each text block.
Felicity Brand (01:17):
G'day.
I'm Felicity Brand.
I'm a writer and editor at OSP,also known as a communications
consultant.
The code subhead and head breakup copy into chunks and make
the headings meaningful.
So the subhead code is astructural aid.
It's really meaningful for longform content.
It's about separating contentinto chunks so that there is
(01:38):
some structure to the writtenpiece.
Additionally, the subheadingshave to be meaningful.
So we have another editing codecalled head, which is about
making sure that the words inthe heading describe the chunk
of content.
And that's because readers skimand scan.
Readers should be able to justread the headings and grasp the
(02:01):
content covered in the page.
The Nielsen Norman group havedone a lot of research into how
readers read on the internet.
They skim and they scan.
So on the average web page,people read about 20% of the
words.
That means that yoursubheadings they need to do some
heavy lifting.
(02:21):
The NN group also found thatpeople don't read your content
completely or linearly, sothey're going to pick out
information on the page thatseems to meet their needs.
So if you use clear headings tobreak up the content and label
the sections, people can scan tofind what they're interested in
(02:42):
and then they might dive deeperand read the content chunk.
Additionally, the use ofheadings as a structural aid.
It's adding white space to yourpage.
It's giving the readers eye achance to rest and we're going
to put links to that research inthe show notes so that you can
find out more.
JAM (03:04):
Hi again, I'm Jeffrey A McGuire.
Feel free to call me Jam.
I am the origin brain of thesewriting and editing codes and a
partner at Open StrategyPartners where we try and apply
them as a team of strategistsand communicators to help our
clients in the technologyindustry.
So it's interesting somehow andI don't remember how it
(03:28):
happened, but it's interestingthat we have one code that says
use headers and one code thatsays use subheaders, and I think
we weren't paying strictattention when we came up with
that.
It sounds like they're the same.
They're very subtly differentand I sort of wonder over time
if we're just going to mergethem somehow, because already
(03:49):
now we're merging the podcastepisode for them.
Essentially, as far as I canvaguely, vaguely recall, what
happened is that they came aboutat different times and for
different reasons.
So in our current operatingdefinition we say to use
subheads to break up the copyand end, create more structural
(04:16):
clarity within a piece.
So a related code to this wouldbe our code wall.
It says use headers, paragraphs, block quotes, lists, because a
wall of words will put a readeroff.
Basically, the mirror image ofthat code is break things up,
(04:38):
and one of your tools therevaluable tool is sub headers.
Now, headers and sub headersare especially valuable, and if
we flip over to the code that wecall head right now, this says
put headers in place and theyshould sum up, they should give
sign posts to the reader, who'smaybe scanning the article to
get an overview of what thewhole thing is about.
(04:59):
So head is a readability hintand subhead is a structural hint
Subtle.
Maybe we need better names forthem.
Christine Bueller (05:08):
I'm Christine Bueller and I work on writing
and editing social mediamessages, case studies, landing
pages for our clients at OpenStrategy Partners.
Head is about readability.
(05:28):
You just want to be writingmeaningful, informative headings
that define the purpose of eachblock of text, and subhead is
more structural.
They just assist the reader inbreaking up copy, also defining
(05:48):
the purpose of each text block.
Chris Fenwick (05:51):
Hi, I'm Chris Fenwick and I work as a
copywriter and editor at RISP.
I think they're the same codes,to be honest.
They're just differentperspectives on.
They're different perspectiveson the idea of breaking up the
piece with sub headers, and oneof those perspectives is
structural and the other is todo with the readability and the
(06:12):
effect that it has on the reader.
I mean, I think these things arealways like slightly related to
each other, but structurally ithelps when you're planning your
piece to have subheadings inplace, so then you know what
each section is supposed to beabout and what the kind of
narrative thrust of that sectionis.
Obviously, sometimes you canwrite stuff with subheadings in
(06:34):
and then take them out and yourpiece still has some sort of
structure and you've kind oftaken away the scaffolding.
But I think for readabilityreasons, for the kind of writing
that we do, we want to keepthem there and that kind of
brings us to the second sense ofthe code, which is why it's
helpful for readers, which isthat it reduces the cognitive
(06:55):
loads and what gives the readeran opportunity to pause and then
also, because they have thesubheading there, they can
orientate themselves around itand they know what's coming.
Christine Bueller (07:03):
As an editor, head and subhead are pretty
easy to check for.
When you're first just scanninga piece, it's easy to see like
if the piece has hit those.
It's not just like boom, boom,boom, boom, boom.
Your eye can just go straightdown or it should go straight
down.
Sometimes.
You know if you see that aparagraph is getting too long,
(07:26):
you're gonna look for ways tohelp break it up.
Sometimes things are also moreappropriate as bullet points or
other formats.
It just makes it easier to editsomething.
Chris Fenwick (07:40):
I don't think I have to really use these codes,
because everybody at OSB alwayswrites with subheadings in place
.
Carl Richards (07:48):
Let's explore how you use this code as an editor.
Felicity Brand (07:51):
As an editor, you can add value with the code
subhead and head by making surethat there are content blocks,
that the content blocks arechunked at the right place, that
the ideas are grouped welltogether and their order flows
nicely, that the size of thecontent blocks are in proportion
.
The subheadings should tell astory and accurately represent
(08:14):
the content of the block.
You don't wanna mislead thereader with a fancy heading that
then doesn't represent what thetext is about.
You'll lose credibility, alsoas an editor, something to look
out for.
Headings are a good place forSEO keywords, but we need to
make sure that the heading isalways meaningful.
We don't wanna lose sacrificemeaning for SEO.
JAM (08:38):
Yeah, for my editing style, I definitely do a pass early on
, when I'm thinking, when I'veread everything, when I've done
our positivity pass, check backin the old episodes, for that
I've marked what I like, what Ithink is good, and I'm really
trying to check the flow and thereadability of the piece.
(09:01):
I want the story to come out ofthose headers and if I don't
think that they're doing that,then it's gonna be on my mind.
I want them to be compelling, Iwant them to be interesting and
I want them to be non-genericif possible.
I usually then go a littlefurther and start to tighten up
the article, do whatever itneeds, and then, as that
(09:22):
narrative is sitting, as I've,you know, checked everything
else then, towards the end ofthe past, I'll start to try and
make the headers a little moreclever, but not too clever, like
just, you know, tight andinteresting and telling the
story right.
So that's definitely myapplication.
On the other hand, I guess if Iwere thinking about the
(09:45):
structural side of things, Imight use wall or I might, you
know, just go ahead and breakthings up into a list and or
suggest that to the author, aswe're going.
So maybe I use the.
Maybe I use the readabilityside of this more as an editor.
Christine Bueller (10:00):
Yeah, I mean subhead and head serve a lot of
different purposes.
They are informative.
They are also the hook which ishopefully drawing the reader in
.
They also just sort of providea way to quickly scan something
and see if it's interesting orrelevant to you as a writer, I
(10:22):
think it just helps you organizeyour ideas more easily.
Sometimes I'll even writesubheads or headings before I
even get into, like, the meat ofthe article, just so I have a
place where I'm like collectingeach supporting piece of
evidence.
As a writer, you know whichtopics or which supporting
(10:47):
points go in which place, whichcan be more confusing than you
think sometimes, depending onthe piece that you're writing.
But if you get a little wrong,it's okay because the editor is
going to help you.
Chris Fenwick (11:01):
Yeah, I wouldn't use the code because people
won't recognize it.
But I mean, I think if I wasdoing editing work more
generally, then breaking thingsup with sub headers is
definitely one of the thingsthat I would be flagging and I
would, you know, write the more,tell the writer to add
something in to break the pieceup.
(11:22):
I think sub headers aresomething you're very aware of
because they're part of thestructural planning of the piece
.
Like, usually, the sub headerswill be written first, at least
in my case, you have the outlineand then you know exactly what
all the sections are, and then Iwould probably just go and
write the sub headers in beforewriting the sections.
Carl Richards (11:42):
As a writer.
How do you approach this code?
Felicity Brand (11:45):
As a writer.
At OSP we have a process wherewe use a content brief.
That's an important part of theprocess that happens before
writing.
It's an opportunity to definethe content chunks so you can
spend time before the creativework thinking about how you're
going to break up your content.
(12:06):
It's much easier to move yourpoints around in the brief and
it's an opportunity for you tocheck your SPOC, your logic.
So check out our other episodeon SPOC to find out more about
that.
So that means once you'veoutlined that in your brief,
when you sit down to write, thehard work that you've done will
pay dividends because you'vereduced this overwhelming,
(12:29):
daunting task and now you'rejust writing text blocks.
They're contained, focused.
I've noticed for me when I writethat's so important, that
process, it's so valuable tohave the content brief and to
chunk my content beforehand whenit comes to the subheadings,
the words in the subheadings asI'm writing.
(12:50):
That's very much anafterthought.
Typically I will write garbagesubheadings and come back and
finesse them later, get thecontent out, write my text
blocks and then, when it's closeto done, I'll come back and
polish the wording of thesubheadings and generally, if I
think I haven't nailed it, I'llflag it for my editor to help me
(13:11):
out.
Often as an editor, becausethey're not so close to the
writing, they might have freshinsight, be able to put a
beautiful heading together.
JAM (13:21):
I've written a lot of content, assets pieces, posts in
this world and for our clientsand for us, and I definitely
look at the structure and I'vedefinitely got some bit of my
hindbrain that sends me alarmsignals.
If a paragraph starts to looktoo long, at that point I at
least want to break it up andthen see what makes sense, how I
(13:43):
could introduce a new header asthis, then back to the
storytelling part of it to giveanother clue about what's in
there.
But it's funny because somehowone of the differences between
book writing and web writing isthat our web formats are
generally so much shorter andit's actually okay sometimes to
put in a header every couple ofhundred words, right?
(14:06):
If my whole blog post is on the800 words or seven or a
thousand words, having three orfour headers, which means every
couple of hundred words, isactually not a problem.
So that's quite interesting andI definitely think about
breaking things up along the way.
Christine Bueller (14:21):
Yeah, I mean subhead and head serve a lot of
different purposes.
They are informative.
They are also the hook which ishopefully drawing the reader in
.
They also just sort of providea way to quickly scan something
and see if it's interesting orrelevant to you as a writer, I
(14:43):
think it just helps you organizeyour ideas more easily.
Sometimes I'll even writesubheads or headings before I
even get into the meat of thearticle, just so I have a place
where I'm collecting eachsupporting piece of evidence.
As a writer, you know whichtopics or which supporting
(15:08):
points go in which place, whichcan be more confusing than you
think sometimes, depending onthe piece that you're writing.
But if you get a little wrong,it's okay because the editor is
going to help you.
Chris Fenwick (15:22):
Yeah, I wouldn't use the code because people
won't recognize it.
I mean, I think if I was doingediting work more generally,
then breaking things up withsubheaders is definitely one of
the things that I would beflagging and I would write the
more tell the writer to addsomething in to break the piece
(15:43):
up.
I think sub headers aresomething you're very aware of
because they're part of thestructural planning of the piece
.
Like, usually, the sub headerswill be written first at least
in my case, you have the outlineand then you know exactly what
all the sections are, and then Iwould probably just go and
write the sub headers in beforewriting the sections.
Carl Richards (16:03):
For the reader to have a great experience.
Here's why this editing code isextremely important.
Felicity Brand (16:08):
The subhead and headcodes are so important for
readers so they kind of act liketelegraphs when you come to a
page of writing.
They're really going to helpyou be able to scan down a page,
get the lay of the land, thetopography of the piece.
They help you know what you'rein for.
Basically, headings andsubheadings should lead you by
(16:32):
the hand and take youpredictably to the summary or
the conclusion.
As a reader of online content,we all know that white space is
important, so the headings helpyou create that white space.
The structural code of subheadis related to the idea of
avoiding a wall of text and wehave an editing code of wall.
(16:54):
Check out our episode on wall.
An article I was readingrecently that was talking about
the psychotherapy of writing forwebsites and writing on the web
had this nice line in it that Ireally liked, which was about
allowing space for your readerand that having subheadings
gives your eye a place to restand allows the reader space to
(17:19):
breathe, and I really liked that.
It's about having empathy foryour reader and just giving them
a chance to break up theirreading journey and hopefully it
makes them feel a bit morecomfortable because they're not
confronted with a wall of textand they do have a place to land
on headings that hopefully aremeaningful.
So I'll put a link in the shownotes to that article so you can
(17:42):
check it out.
Meaningful subheadings, notclever ones.
Your customers don't read asmuch as you think they do.
Customers skim your docs.
Skim and scan.
That's what it's all about.
JAM (17:53):
We've coined a term AX, audience experience.
I'm not sure we're really goingto use it, but we want the
experience of consuming ourcontent to be as straightforward
as possible, as interesting, aspleasurable, as informative as
possible.
And when I keep my text chunkedinto semantically meaningful
(18:15):
bits, when I give extra clueslike bold texts or lists which
are not part of this code, alsobreaking things up, also adding
headers in between some of thoseparagraphs, all can contribute
to making a more easilyconsumable piece of content.
In the end, like I say almostevery episode, what we want the
(18:36):
reader's experience to be is Iunderstand what this is very
quickly.
I can make a decision whetherI'm going to read and invest in
this text very quickly, and sothe subheaders let us scan
through the high points of thestory and then help make that
decision.
Christine Bueller (18:53):
As a reader.
There are a lot of reasons whyhead and subhead are important.
Personally, I've been turnedoff reading something when it's
just like a long block of text.
If I see that, I'm probablythinking to myself like, is this
an academic paper or aphilosophy paper?
(19:16):
You know, it sort of sets in mymind that I'm just going to be
reading something really dry.
So it doesn't really set goodexpectations to just have long
blocks of text.
Also, just visually it'simportant.
(19:36):
It's just more interesting tohave headers and subheaders.
There's not a lot the brain cando with just a solid wall of
text.
It also helps because it cangive your mind a bit of a break
when you're jumping from oneparagraph to the next and give
(19:57):
you a pause to just process whatyou have just read.
And it also makes it reallyclear when you're shifting to a
new topic or a new supportingpoint.
Chris Fenwick (20:11):
I think, given the kinds of writing that we're
talking about so like blogpieces and case studies, things
that are like B2B marketingpeople will be reading them on
computers and smartphones.
They'll probably be reading themin the context of, you know,
(20:31):
either like a coffee break wherethey're trying to do a bit of
extra work, research, orwhatever it's been recommended
to them on linkedin, so theymight not be trying to give the
piece their maximal attention inthat circumstance.
And likewise, if they aresomebody from marketing
department or whatever otherDevelopment team even trying to
(20:53):
research something, then they'llbe reading it, but they'll have
20 other articles open at thesame time as well.
So I think, in all the casesthe things that we're publishing
Trying to compete for areader's attention and to
maintain their attention andkeep them reading to the end.
(21:14):
That being the case, we want tohave things that minimize the
cognitive load for the reader.
You know they don't open thearticle and think, oh, it's just
a massive wall of text.
Instead, they can skim over itand see, okay, these are already
the first main four or fivepoints.
Oh, and they look good.
And then they go through it andthen, if they want to pause,
they can pause between twosubheadings as well.
Carl Richards (21:52):
I hope you enjoyed this episode, dear
listeners, and next time youfind yourself writing a longer
piece, think about how you canmake it easy on your reader by
adding some stopping pointsalong the way, clearly
telegraphed with subheadings.
Share your examples orquestions with us via Twitter
and open underscore strategy oremail.
Hello at open strategy partnersdot com.
(22:13):
This was one of the editorialcodes we use at OSP.
We'll be sharing more of themas we go.
If you'd like to learn more inthe meantime, come over to open
strategy partners dot com, havea look at our writer enablement,
workshops, case study offeringor get in touch to talk about
your strategy or productcommunication needs.
Thanks to everyone whocontributed to this podcast all
(22:37):
the P's at OSP.
Thanks to our clients whobelieve in us.
Shout out to Patrick Oman forour high energy maple syrup
flavored theme music and to Mikesnow for additional horn
arrangements.
Thank you for listening andsubscribing.
About our three themes on thepodcast, you'll hear from
different members of the OSPteam hosting episodes over time.
(23:00):
Communicate all things.
Communication we share how wetackle writing, editing, word
choices, formats, processes andmore.
Connect in depth conversationswith interesting, smart people
about who they are, what they doand how they approach their
life and work as communicators,technologists and leaders.
(23:22):
Grow we cover strategicapproaches to understanding and
expressing the value of what youdo, including tools, templates
and practical applications.
We also feel strongly aboutbuilding a mindful, positive,
human first culture at work.
That's bound to pop up fromtime to time to this podcast is
(23:44):
us figuring out communication,connection and growing together.
Subscribe now on YouTube, applepodcast or the podcast channel
of your choice.
Follow us, suggest guests andtopics, ask us questions.
On social media.
We are at open underscorestrategy on Twitter Until next
(24:04):
time.
Thanks for listening tocommunicate.
Connect.
Grow the OSP podcast.
Felicity Brand (24:40):
It's much easier to move around your blocks
thinking about bullet pointsmaybe.
No, sorry, let's okay.
Fudge, that was going so welland then I said that's cheaper
thing about the bullet pointsOkay, let me try that again as a
(25:01):
writer.
Hi, I'm Carl from OSP and this is Communicate
Connect Grow, the OSP podcast.
On today's episode, we'retalking about using subheadings
in your writing, with theediting codes head and subhead.
If you want to be a moreeffective writer, a more
transparent editor, developclear strategic thinking or
learn from our network of expertfriends and colleagues, that's
(00:29):
what we're here for.
We divide our episodes acrossthree themes Communicate,
connect and Grow.
This is a Communicate episodeand we're talking about breaking
up copy with our editorialcodes head and subhead.
These editing codes fall intothe flow and readability phase
(01:01):
of the editing process andthey're about chunking long form
writing into blocks and usingmeaningful subheadings.
In our documentation about thiscode, it says Relevant subheads
assist the reader by breakingup copy and defining the purpose
of each text block.
Felicity Brand (01:17):
G'day.
I'm Felicity Brand.
I'm a writer and editor at OSP,also known as a communications
consultant.
The code subhead and head breakup copy into chunks and make
the headings meaningful.
So the subhead code is astructural aid.
It's really meaningful for longform content.
It's about separating contentinto chunks so that there is
(01:38):
some structure to the writtenpiece.
Additionally, the subheadingshave to be meaningful.
So we have another editing codecalled head, which is about
making sure that the words inthe heading describe the chunk
of content.
And that's because readers skimand scan.
Readers should be able to justread the headings and grasp the
(02:01):
content covered in the page.
The Nielsen Norman group havedone a lot of research into how
readers read on the internet.
They skim and they scan.
So on the average web page,people read about 20% of the
words.
That means that yoursubheadings they need to do some
heavy lifting.
(02:21):
The NN group also found thatpeople don't read your content
completely or linearly, sothey're going to pick out
information on the page thatseems to meet their needs.
So if you use clear headings tobreak up the content and label
the sections, people can scan tofind what they're interested in
(02:42):
and then they might dive deeperand read the content chunk.
Additionally, the use ofheadings as a structural aid.
It's adding white space to yourpage.
It's giving the readers eye achance to rest and we're going
to put links to that research inthe show notes so that you can
find out more.
JAM (03:04):
Hi again, I'm Jeffrey A McGuire.
Feel free to call me Jam.
I am the origin brain of thesewriting and editing codes and a
partner at Open StrategyPartners where we try and apply
them as a team of strategistsand communicators to help our
clients in the technologyindustry.
So it's interesting somehow andI don't remember how it
(03:28):
happened, but it's interestingthat we have one code that says
use headers and one code thatsays use subheaders, and I think
we weren't paying strictattention when we came up with
that.
It sounds like they're the same.
They're very subtly differentand I sort of wonder over time
if we're just going to mergethem somehow, because already
(03:49):
now we're merging the podcastepisode for them.
Essentially, as far as I canvaguely, vaguely recall, what
happened is that they came aboutat different times and for
different reasons.
So in our current operatingdefinition we say to use
subheads to break up the copyand end, create more structural
(04:16):
clarity within a piece.
So a related code to this wouldbe our code wall.
It says use headers, paragraphs, block quotes, lists, because a
wall of words will put a readeroff.
Basically, the mirror image ofthat code is break things up,
(04:38):
and one of your tools therevaluable tool is sub headers.
Now, headers and sub headersare especially valuable, and if
we flip over to the code that wecall head right now, this says
put headers in place and theyshould sum up, they should give
sign posts to the reader, who'smaybe scanning the article to
get an overview of what thewhole thing is about.
(04:59):
So head is a readability hintand subhead is a structural hint
Subtle.
Maybe we need better names forthem.
Christine Bueller (05:08):
I'm Christine Bueller and I work on writing
and editing social mediamessages, case studies, landing
pages for our clients at OpenStrategy Partners.
Head is about readability.
(05:28):
You just want to be writingmeaningful, informative headings
that define the purpose of eachblock of text, and subhead is
more structural.
They just assist the reader inbreaking up copy, also defining
(05:48):
the purpose of each text block.
Chris Fenwick (05:51):
Hi, I'm Chris Fenwick and I work as a
copywriter and editor at RISP.
I think they're the same codes,to be honest.
They're just differentperspectives on.
They're different perspectiveson the idea of breaking up the
piece with sub headers, and oneof those perspectives is
structural and the other is todo with the readability and the
(06:12):
effect that it has on the reader.
I mean, I think these things arealways like slightly related to
each other, but structurally ithelps when you're planning your
piece to have subheadings inplace, so then you know what
each section is supposed to beabout and what the kind of
narrative thrust of that sectionis.
Obviously, sometimes you canwrite stuff with subheadings in
(06:34):
and then take them out and yourpiece still has some sort of
structure and you've kind oftaken away the scaffolding.
But I think for readabilityreasons, for the kind of writing
that we do, we want to keepthem there and that kind of
brings us to the second sense ofthe code, which is why it's
helpful for readers, which isthat it reduces the cognitive
(06:55):
loads and what gives the readeran opportunity to pause and then
also, because they have thesubheading there, they can
orientate themselves around itand they know what's coming.
Christine Bueller (07:03):
As an editor, head and subhead are pretty
easy to check for.
When you're first just scanninga piece, it's easy to see like
if the piece has hit those.
It's not just like boom, boom,boom, boom, boom.
Your eye can just go straightdown or it should go straight
down.
Sometimes.
You know if you see that aparagraph is getting too long,
(07:26):
you're gonna look for ways tohelp break it up.
Sometimes things are also moreappropriate as bullet points or
other formats.
It just makes it easier to editsomething.
Chris Fenwick (07:40):
I don't think I have to really use these codes,
because everybody at OSB alwayswrites with subheadings in place
.
Carl Richards (07:48):
Let's explore how you use this code as an editor.
Felicity Brand (07:51):
As an editor, you can add value with the code
subhead and head by making surethat there are content blocks,
that the content blocks arechunked at the right place, that
the ideas are grouped welltogether and their order flows
nicely, that the size of thecontent blocks are in proportion
.
The subheadings should tell astory and accurately represent
(08:14):
the content of the block.
You don't wanna mislead thereader with a fancy heading that
then doesn't represent what thetext is about.
You'll lose credibility, alsoas an editor, something to look
out for.
Headings are a good place forSEO keywords, but we need to
make sure that the heading isalways meaningful.
We don't wanna lose sacrificemeaning for SEO.
JAM (08:38):
Yeah, for my editing style, I definitely do a pass early on
, when I'm thinking, when I'veread everything, when I've done
our positivity pass, check backin the old episodes, for that
I've marked what I like, what Ithink is good, and I'm really
trying to check the flow and thereadability of the piece.
(09:01):
I want the story to come out ofthose headers and if I don't
think that they're doing that,then it's gonna be on my mind.
I want them to be compelling, Iwant them to be interesting and
I want them to be non-genericif possible.
I usually then go a littlefurther and start to tighten up
the article, do whatever itneeds, and then, as that
(09:22):
narrative is sitting, as I've,you know, checked everything
else then, towards the end ofthe past, I'll start to try and
make the headers a little moreclever, but not too clever, like
just, you know, tight andinteresting and telling the
story right.
So that's definitely myapplication.
On the other hand, I guess if Iwere thinking about the
(09:45):
structural side of things, Imight use wall or I might, you
know, just go ahead and breakthings up into a list and or
suggest that to the author, aswe're going.
So maybe I use the.
Maybe I use the readabilityside of this more as an editor.
Christine Bueller (10:00):
Yeah, I mean subhead and head serve a lot of
different purposes.
They are informative.
They are also the hook which ishopefully drawing the reader in
.
They also just sort of providea way to quickly scan something
and see if it's interesting orrelevant to you as a writer, I
(10:22):
think it just helps you organizeyour ideas more easily.
Sometimes I'll even writesubheads or headings before I
even get into, like, the meat ofthe article, just so I have a
place where I'm like collectingeach supporting piece of
evidence.
As a writer, you know whichtopics or which supporting
(10:47):
points go in which place, whichcan be more confusing than you
think sometimes, depending onthe piece that you're writing.
But if you get a little wrong,it's okay because the editor is
going to help you.
Chris Fenwick (11:01):
Yeah, I wouldn't use the code because people
won't recognize it.
But I mean, I think if I wasdoing editing work more
generally, then breaking thingsup with sub headers is
definitely one of the thingsthat I would be flagging and I
would, you know, write the more,tell the writer to add
something in to break the pieceup.
(11:22):
I think sub headers aresomething you're very aware of
because they're part of thestructural planning of the piece
.
Like, usually, the sub headerswill be written first, at least
in my case, you have the outlineand then you know exactly what
all the sections are, and then Iwould probably just go and
write the sub headers in beforewriting the sections.
Carl Richards (11:42):
As a writer.
How do you approach this code?
Felicity Brand (11:45):
As a writer.
At OSP we have a process wherewe use a content brief.
That's an important part of theprocess that happens before
writing.
It's an opportunity to definethe content chunks so you can
spend time before the creativework thinking about how you're
going to break up your content.
(12:06):
It's much easier to move yourpoints around in the brief and
it's an opportunity for you tocheck your SPOC, your logic.
So check out our other episodeon SPOC to find out more about
that.
So that means once you'veoutlined that in your brief,
when you sit down to write, thehard work that you've done will
pay dividends because you'vereduced this overwhelming,
(12:29):
daunting task and now you'rejust writing text blocks.
They're contained, focused.
I've noticed for me when I writethat's so important, that
process, it's so valuable tohave the content brief and to
chunk my content beforehand whenit comes to the subheadings,
the words in the subheadings asI'm writing.
(12:50):
That's very much anafterthought.
Typically I will write garbagesubheadings and come back and
finesse them later, get thecontent out, write my text
blocks and then, when it's closeto done, I'll come back and
polish the wording of thesubheadings and generally, if I
think I haven't nailed it, I'llflag it for my editor to help me
(13:11):
out.
Often as an editor, becausethey're not so close to the
writing, they might have freshinsight, be able to put a
beautiful heading together.
JAM (13:21):
I've written a lot of content, assets pieces, posts in
this world and for our clientsand for us, and I definitely
look at the structure and I'vedefinitely got some bit of my
hindbrain that sends me alarmsignals.
If a paragraph starts to looktoo long, at that point I at
least want to break it up andthen see what makes sense, how I
(13:43):
could introduce a new header asthis, then back to the
storytelling part of it to giveanother clue about what's in
there.
But it's funny because somehowone of the differences between
book writing and web writing isthat our web formats are
generally so much shorter andit's actually okay sometimes to
put in a header every couple ofhundred words, right?
(14:06):
If my whole blog post is on the800 words or seven or a
thousand words, having three orfour headers, which means every
couple of hundred words, isactually not a problem.
So that's quite interesting andI definitely think about
breaking things up along the way.
Christine Bueller (14:21):
Yeah, I mean subhead and head serve a lot of
different purposes.
They are informative.
They are also the hook which ishopefully drawing the reader in
.
They also just sort of providea way to quickly scan something
and see if it's interesting orrelevant to you as a writer, I
(14:43):
think it just helps you organizeyour ideas more easily.
Sometimes I'll even writesubheads or headings before I
even get into the meat of thearticle, just so I have a place
where I'm collecting eachsupporting piece of evidence.
As a writer, you know whichtopics or which supporting
(15:08):
points go in which place, whichcan be more confusing than you
think sometimes, depending onthe piece that you're writing.
But if you get a little wrong,it's okay because the editor is
going to help you.
Chris Fenwick (15:22):
Yeah, I wouldn't use the code because people
won't recognize it.
I mean, I think if I was doingediting work more generally,
then breaking things up withsubheaders is definitely one of
the things that I would beflagging and I would write the
more tell the writer to addsomething in to break the piece
(15:43):
up.
I think sub headers aresomething you're very aware of
because they're part of thestructural planning of the piece
.
Like, usually, the sub headerswill be written first at least
in my case, you have the outlineand then you know exactly what
all the sections are, and then Iwould probably just go and
write the sub headers in beforewriting the sections.
Carl Richards (16:03):
For the reader to have a great experience.
Here's why this editing code isextremely important.
Felicity Brand (16:08):
The subhead and headcodes are so important for
readers so they kind of act liketelegraphs when you come to a
page of writing.
They're really going to helpyou be able to scan down a page,
get the lay of the land, thetopography of the piece.
They help you know what you'rein for.
Basically, headings andsubheadings should lead you by
(16:32):
the hand and take youpredictably to the summary or
the conclusion.
As a reader of online content,we all know that white space is
important, so the headings helpyou create that white space.
The structural code of subheadis related to the idea of
avoiding a wall of text and wehave an editing code of wall.
(16:54):
Check out our episode on wall.
An article I was readingrecently that was talking about
the psychotherapy of writing forwebsites and writing on the web
had this nice line in it that Ireally liked, which was about
allowing space for your readerand that having subheadings
gives your eye a place to restand allows the reader space to
(17:19):
breathe, and I really liked that.
It's about having empathy foryour reader and just giving them
a chance to break up theirreading journey and hopefully it
makes them feel a bit morecomfortable because they're not
confronted with a wall of textand they do have a place to land
on headings that hopefully aremeaningful.
So I'll put a link in the shownotes to that article so you can
(17:42):
check it out.
Meaningful subheadings, notclever ones.
Your customers don't read asmuch as you think they do.
Customers skim your docs.
Skim and scan.
That's what it's all about.
JAM (17:53):
We've coined a term AX, audience experience.
I'm not sure we're really goingto use it, but we want the
experience of consuming ourcontent to be as straightforward
as possible, as interesting, aspleasurable, as informative as
possible.
And when I keep my text chunkedinto semantically meaningful
(18:15):
bits, when I give extra clueslike bold texts or lists which
are not part of this code, alsobreaking things up, also adding
headers in between some of thoseparagraphs, all can contribute
to making a more easilyconsumable piece of content.
In the end, like I say almostevery episode, what we want the
(18:36):
reader's experience to be is Iunderstand what this is very
quickly.
I can make a decision whetherI'm going to read and invest in
this text very quickly, and sothe subheaders let us scan
through the high points of thestory and then help make that
decision.
Christine Bueller (18:53):
As a reader.
There are a lot of reasons whyhead and subhead are important.
Personally, I've been turnedoff reading something when it's
just like a long block of text.
If I see that, I'm probablythinking to myself like, is this
an academic paper or aphilosophy paper?
(19:16):
You know, it sort of sets in mymind that I'm just going to be
reading something really dry.
So it doesn't really set goodexpectations to just have long
blocks of text.
Also, just visually it'simportant.
(19:36):
It's just more interesting tohave headers and subheaders.
There's not a lot the brain cando with just a solid wall of
text.
It also helps because it cangive your mind a bit of a break
when you're jumping from oneparagraph to the next and give
(19:57):
you a pause to just process whatyou have just read.
And it also makes it reallyclear when you're shifting to a
new topic or a new supportingpoint.
Chris Fenwick (20:11):
I think, given the kinds of writing that we're
talking about so like blogpieces and case studies, things
that are like B2B marketingpeople will be reading them on
computers and smartphones.
They'll probably be reading themin the context of, you know,
(20:31):
either like a coffee break wherethey're trying to do a bit of
extra work, research, orwhatever it's been recommended
to them on linkedin, so theymight not be trying to give the
piece their maximal attention inthat circumstance.
And likewise, if they aresomebody from marketing
department or whatever otherDevelopment team even trying to
(20:53):
research something, then they'llbe reading it, but they'll have
20 other articles open at thesame time as well.
So I think, in all the casesthe things that we're publishing
Trying to compete for areader's attention and to
maintain their attention andkeep them reading to the end.
(21:14):
That being the case, we want tohave things that minimize the
cognitive load for the reader.
You know they don't open thearticle and think, oh, it's just
a massive wall of text.
Instead, they can skim over itand see, okay, these are already
the first main four or fivepoints.
Oh, and they look good.
And then they go through it andthen, if they want to pause,
they can pause between twosubheadings as well.
Carl Richards (21:52):
I hope you enjoyed this episode, dear
listeners, and next time youfind yourself writing a longer
piece, think about how you canmake it easy on your reader by
adding some stopping pointsalong the way, clearly
telegraphed with subheadings.
Share your examples orquestions with us via Twitter
and open underscore strategy oremail.
Hello at open strategy partnersdot com.
(22:13):
This was one of the editorialcodes we use at OSP.
We'll be sharing more of themas we go.
If you'd like to learn more inthe meantime, come over to open
strategy partners dot com, havea look at our writer enablement,
workshops, case study offeringor get in touch to talk about
your strategy or productcommunication needs.
Thanks to everyone whocontributed to this podcast all
(22:37):
the P's at OSP.
Thanks to our clients whobelieve in us.
Shout out to Patrick Oman forour high energy maple syrup
flavored theme music and to Mikesnow for additional horn
arrangements.
Thank you for listening andsubscribing.
About our three themes on thepodcast, you'll hear from
different members of the OSPteam hosting episodes over time.
(23:00):
Communicate all things.
Communication we share how wetackle writing, editing, word
choices, formats, processes andmore.
Connect in depth conversationswith interesting, smart people
about who they are, what they doand how they approach their
life and work as communicators,technologists and leaders.
(23:22):
Grow we cover strategicapproaches to understanding and
expressing the value of what youdo, including tools, templates
and practical applications.
We also feel strongly aboutbuilding a mindful, positive,
human first culture at work.
That's bound to pop up fromtime to time to this podcast is
(23:44):
us figuring out communication,connection and growing together.
Subscribe now on YouTube, applepodcast or the podcast channel
of your choice.
Follow us, suggest guests andtopics, ask us questions.
On social media.
We are at open underscorestrategy on Twitter Until next
(24:04):
time.
Thanks for listening tocommunicate.
Connect.
Grow the OSP podcast.
Felicity Brand (24:40):
It's much easier to move around your blocks
thinking about bullet pointsmaybe.
No, sorry, let's okay.
Fudge, that was going so welland then I said that's cheaper
thing about the bullet pointsOkay, let me try that again as a
(25:01):
writer.
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