Internet Writing ≠ Academic Writing

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Now, onto today’s essay:

Forgive me folks, for I’m about to say something that’s not so humble:

I’m a good writer — and I always have been.

I got A’s in all my high school writing classes, a 35/36 in English on my ACT exam, and now I make a full-time living as a digital writer.

My teachers, parents, and peers often complimented me on my work growing up.

Writing is what “looks like work to others, but feels like play to me,” as Naval Ravikant says.

I guess it’s something I’ve always had a natural talent for.

Now, I don’t say this to boast and be an obnoxious 22-year-old who thinks he’s got it all figured out (far from it). I mention these things to illustrate one important point:

My success as a writer in school has had little correlation to my success as a writer on the internet.

In fact, even though I was a good writer in school — I was embarrassingly bad when I first started writing online.

Case in point:

Of course, it’d be too much of an exaggeration to say there’s no relationship between my achievements in academic writing and internet writing.

But for the most part, I actually had to actively unlearn many writing habits from school in order to find some traction in the digital writing world.

You see, writing in this Great Online Game isn’t about:

• Meeting word counts

• Following rubrics

• Trying to get good grades from old professors

It’s about:

• Capturing the world’s attention

• Writing casually and conversationally

• Keeping people engaged with your ideas

This stark difference in goals naturally means a stark difference in skillsets necessary to succeed.

Today, let’s take a look at how digital writing is different.

How to Write for Attention

The most fundamental reason behind why academic writing is almost nothing like digital writing:

Instead of writing for a single teacher who is forced to read your entire paper, you are writing for billions of human beings who will decide whether or not to scroll past your work within a 5 second window.

You’re writing for attention, not grades.

Each of the following differences boils down to this, and it’ll require some unlearning from what you were taught in school…

You and I

In all my high school English classes, I vividly remember getting dinged points for using first-person words like “you” and “I” in my essays (thanks, Mr. Pelster).

The idea is that it weakens the formality and objectivity of your writing.

In my opinion, this is ridiculous since it’s my analysis and my perspective. Why shouldn’t I be able to use the first-person?

Luckily, the internet plays by much different rules.

Not only can you use words like “you,” “your,” “I,” and “my” in your writing — they’re actually encouraged.

The digital world simply doesn’t care about old-school, traditional formalities. It cares about being engaged and involved.

Talk to your readers, not at them. When people open Twitter, Gmail, or YouTube, they want to feel like they’re directly part of the conversation.

Let’s take a YouTube video, for example:

It’s significantly more engaging when the YouTuber speaks directly to the camera because it feels like he’s speaking directly to YOU. It feels like a 1-on-1, personalized exchange of ideas.

The equivalent in online writing is using the word “you” whenever possible.

It’s more conversational, more relatable, and overall just develops a stronger relationship between you and your audience.

The result? More attention captured.

Sentence Starters

Remember when your elementary school teacher told you that you can’t start sentences with “and,” “but,” “so,” or “because?”

On the internet, you can. And actually, you should.

Nobody wants to read a run-on sentence.

Because the longer the sentence, the more effort required on the reader’s end. And on the internet, 99% of people will just scroll past instead of trying to comprehend your point.

Give your audience more dopamine hits by keeping your sentences short.

It plays off the theme above — you want to keep things casual and conversational.

When you talk to people in real life, you start sentences with “and,” “but,” and “because” all of the time.

So you should do the same with your writing.

Write how you talk.

For example, the way I phrased this tweet is exactly how I’d phrase it in conversation (side note: speaking your sentences out loud is a great way to catch errors and make your writing sound more natural):

Actually, the point I made in this tweet leads me perfectly to my next tip…

Decrease, Don’t Increase Word Count

One of the biggest issues of the modern world:

Our increasingly shortened attention spans.

There’s a reason people call today’s youth the “TikTok generation” — they can barely focus on something for longer than 5 seconds before getting distracted.

You need to keep this in mind when writing.

Instead of adding paragraphs full of fluff to meet your professor’s arbitrary 3,000 minimum word count, you want to reduce your writing into as few words as possible for the internet.

Great writing is a game of subtraction. Fewer words hold more power.

This is why Twitter is the greatest platform for writers — it forces you to condense your ideas into under 280 characters.

Write to a 5th Grader

Not only should you reduce your word count, you should also reduce the fanciness of your word selection.

In school, we were all encouraged to expand our vocabulary and use elaborate, complex sentence structures.

We were taught how to use semicolons (;) and to choose exquisite words such as “plethora” and “loquacious.”

But deep down, we just wanted to sound smart and impress our professors.

Erase these habits from your memory.

A good framework to follow for digital writing:

The bigger the words you use, the more pretentious you are viewed.

Not only does it come off as arrogant, it also signals that you probably don’t know what you’re talking about:

Dumbing your writing down forces you to break your idea down into its most fundamental components. It’s the ultimate forcing function for true clarity and understanding.

Not only will you understand your idea better — your audience will understand it better, too.

(Relevant: The majority of internet users aren’t native English speakers. So if you want your ideas to reach a global audience, write simply.)

Make it Skimmable

In school, the standard format for writing papers was:

1. Introduction

2. Body Paragraph #1

3. Body Paragraph #2

4. Body Paragraph #3

5. Conclusion

Writing like this on the internet is a fantastic way to make sure your work never gets read.

Because when a reader on the internet sees a massive block of text, it’s extremely intimidating. Subconsciously, they think:

“That’s way too much work to read through.”

Remember: modern society has extremely limited attention spans.

To cater to this, you need to make your writing skimmable.

Skimmable writing is when you format your work in a way that introduces variety and makes it easier on your reader’s eyes.

The piece you’re reading this very second is a prime example. Notice how I:

• Include headings and subheadings

• Embed tweets, quotes, and images

• Use bullet points and numbered lists

• Italicize and bold important sentences

• Give nearly every sentence its own line to space things out

• Add ellipses (…) and colons (:) to the end of sentences to make my reader curious about the next sentence

Digital writing isn’t just about the ideas, words, and sentences you use — it’s also about the way you format it.

So design it like a beautiful, simplistic piece of art.

Matt’s Discoveries

My 3 favorite finds this week:

The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Taleb is one of the most thought-provoking and humorous books I’ve read in awhile.

Meaningwave is my new favorite genre of music. It basically combines podcast snippets with lofi beats. I listened to this one on a walk this past Saturday and it blew my mind.

This 1981 Steve Jobs interview was fascinating to watch. His perspective at the 9:46 timestamp could just as easily be spoken today about AI. If Steve was alive today, I imagine he’d believe that AI will enrich our work, not detract from it.

Thanks for reading.

Go have yourself a creative week.

Matt Mic

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