Can Articles Be To Long?
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
If your article is too lengthy like a mini booklet, you may like to break it up into MultiPart (Part 1, Part 2 etc).
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep! -
I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
If it's well written, informative and entertaining to read then no it can't be too long. Most people will read an entire programming book if it's good. But if the witting is dry, poor formatting, etc. then yes it can definitely be too long.
Todd Smith
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
Since you're asking the question, I'm guessing that you think it's too long, and so you already have your answer. Here's how I have split some of my longer articles:
- By functionality - when there is a clean split between different functional pieces.
- By level of detail - give an overview and a how-to-use section in the first part, and then put the implementation details in the second part (but let your readers know that you are splitting it like this, or they will complain that there are no details).
- By time progression - how you started going in one direction, then shifted when you found some new information, or ran into problems.
It's always nice to finish each part with a statement like "In the next part, I will discuss ...". At the top of each part, I like to give links to the other parts.
Best wishes, Hans
[CodeProject Forum Guidelines] [How To Ask A Question] [My Articles]
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If your article is too lengthy like a mini booklet, you may like to break it up into MultiPart (Part 1, Part 2 etc).
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep!If it is really very long, you can split in different articles/sections. But I generally prefer one long article with everything I need to know rather than a series of article I have to put toghther by myself to get all the informations; but that's just my opinion of course and indeed I never skipped an interesting series of articles just because it was splitted.
Marco Turrini
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
If you can break it up into logical parts then do so, but if you do, please provide a table of links to each article in the series at the top of the page. What annoys me is these articles that say Part 1 of 6, yet there's no link to Part 2 on the first part. Ok they may not have written it at the time, but you can go back and simply add a link in, thus saving the user several clicks.
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
Thanks for the replies!, I'll definitely take this feedback into consideration.
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
An article should be as long as is necessary ot present the information. No shorter, no longer.
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
Josh, if you're worried that the article is too long, have someone else read it and make suggesstions. Then edit it as suggested. But, don't let that stop you from publishing it. There must be some useful information in the article that someone can use. If its too long or not useful to some readers, they will stop reading it. For those few who find the material useful, they won't put it down (like a book). So, go for it.
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I'm currently in the process of writing my next article and as I'm writing it becoming apparent that the article is going to be very long. I was wondering how the members of the site felt about article length. Should long articles be broken into a series or do the majority of readers prefer a nice long read on a topic at hand.
I slightly prefer a single article (even a very long one) if it is presenting a single idea, but a very close second is spitting it with the links to all other installments. I have run across a few articles in CodeProject (as well as other sites) that, either implicitly or explicitely, indicate that there are other installments to the article/series, yet those other parts are nowhere to be found - even in an article that was over a year old! Most frustrating, particularly when the bit I was most interested in is in the (missing) part 2! Grady R Patterson Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another. G. K. Chesterton
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If you can break it up into logical parts then do so, but if you do, please provide a table of links to each article in the series at the top of the page. What annoys me is these articles that say Part 1 of 6, yet there's no link to Part 2 on the first part. Ok they may not have written it at the time, but you can go back and simply add a link in, thus saving the user several clicks.
Ed.Poore wrote:
What annoys me is these articles that say Part 1 of 6, yet there's no link to Part 2 on the first part.
Yeah, I agree.
Kevin
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I slightly prefer a single article (even a very long one) if it is presenting a single idea, but a very close second is spitting it with the links to all other installments. I have run across a few articles in CodeProject (as well as other sites) that, either implicitly or explicitely, indicate that there are other installments to the article/series, yet those other parts are nowhere to be found - even in an article that was over a year old! Most frustrating, particularly when the bit I was most interested in is in the (missing) part 2! Grady R Patterson Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another. G. K. Chesterton
DragonsRightWing wrote:
yet those other parts are nowhere to be found - even in an article that was over a year old!
Yeah, that sucks.
Kevin