Today is our once-a-month legal writing tip and this one is going to change the way you handle every single message you write. You need to write for the way people read. And don't miss my new freebie. I’ve created an editing cheat sheet that will help you send your best work out into the world every time.

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I hope you caught David's tip last week on one way you can slay the billable hour zombies & increase your margin.

So let’s get back to how people read. Get a piece of paper and a pen. Now, write a big capital letter F. Take up the whole page with it. The shape of that F, ladies and gentlemen, is the way that people read. It's true if they're looking at a screen or a piece of paper.

They start at the top left of the F and read first across the top. Then they read down. And maybe a little across the middle. Where they’re not reading is in that yellow circle. So if you're putting the important stuff there, no one is going to read it.

This information behind this F comes from eye-tracking studies of people reading on the web. Because most of our reading is on the web these days, I'd argue it now applies to just about everything you read. If you're like me, you need to force yourself to read in the more traditional way. It's hard.

And it’s even harder on a screen, where we lack the physical geography of books and paper. Most of us can remember where something was on a page, or how far back in our book it was, by location. On a screen, you can't do that.

On a screen, you need to give people signposts. You need to help them find their way down the page and back to the critical information they’re looking for.

Signposts help with another problem with the way people read. Busy people scan. They’re not reading all of your carefully crafted emails. They’re skimming quickly, looking for the important pieces of information that they need to make their decisions, or act, or respond.

So what can you do about the F, the scanning, the challenge of reading on a screen?

Accept the way people read, and write for it.

Top load your document

Put the important information in the top part of that F, where your readers are most likely to read it.

Keep your opening paragraph short and useful

If you’re asking for something, make sure you ask in that first paragraph. Don’t leave it to the very end of your email (although you may want to repeat it at the end).

Use signposts

Add in headings and subtitles to draw people down the page and give them a sense of that geography that's missing. You need to make it easy for people to find the information they need.

Chunk your information

Busy people scan. Headings will get them jumping to the right sections, but they'll need the information delivered in a way that minimized the time and energy they have to put into understanding it.

1. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short
2. Make only one point per paragraph, so people get their information in short, clear, digestible chunks
3. Use numbered or bulleted lists (see what I did there?)

And remember that F. Keep the important stuff along the top and down the side, and not in that yellow circle!

That’s it for this week’s tip. Don’t forget to download your editing cheat sheet with my three step strategy for self-editing, and then join us next week for more on building a more profitable and productive law practice.

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Thanks a lot everybody! See you next week.