Blogs

Blog posts are meant to be “deeper dive” content into specialized topics and are likely to attract readers with stronger literacy skills. Blog posts may have a reading level up to tenth grade. Use Hemingway App to check reading level and edit using their suggestions.

Blog topics have:

• Demonstrated interested from OPL readers

• Relevance to OPL collections

• Expertise among OPL staff.

Use descriptive, but brief, titles. Readers should understand from the title what the post will be about.

Place the important facts near the top of the first paragraph where users can find them quickly.

Keep paragraphs to an average length of 50 to 70 words, about four sentences. Begin each paragraph with its strongest sentence.

Limit sentences to one or two ideas and keep them to an average length of 15 to 20 words. Aim to keep the most important keyword at the beginning of the sentence.

Use short headings and subheadings to communicate the content of the page in the first scan.

Use bullet points or numbers when listing information, keeping each list item to 12 words or less.