Top 5 Ways How to Grab a Reader’s Attention

You probably have extensive experience writing essays on various subjects and topics. After all, you have probably written dozens of essays. Even though you will usually get a good grade by adhering to all the style guidelines and by writing to the topic, there are times when you want to capture and keep your readers’ attention. For example, you may need to read your essay to the class. This is why it is so important to learn how to keep reader's attention. But the sad reality is that even though many college and university students are very good at writing essays correctly, very few of them can keep their readers interested. In fact, it is very difficult to keep your reader interested in a long essay. People easily get distracted and bored, so it’s not really your fault. But there are things you can do to make your paper more interesting and more engaging.

How to keep reader’s attention: why is it important?

You may not realize why it is important to make your readers keep attention in essay. However, one of the main points of writing an essay is to help the scientific community; to find new and interesting things and write about them. If nobody is interested in what you are writing, it’s like you have wasted your time. In addition, you can get bonus points from your teacher if you manage to make long essay interesting. Keep in mind that your teacher has probably read dozens of papers like yours, on pretty similar topics. He or she is probably easily bored by the same style and the same information. This is exactly why, if you manage to stand out of the crowd and capture your teacher’s attention, you will most likely get a top grade on your paper.

Is a 10-page essay too long?

Before we get to discussing how to keep reader's attention, there is one more thing you should know. In general, college essays are around 600-words long. Research papers and essays on more complex topics for higher education are usually less than 5 pages long (double-spaced). In other words, a 10 page essay is a quite lengthy piece of writing. And the longer your essay, the more difficult it can be to keep your readers’ attention. Let’s face it; it becomes boring after the first 4 or 5 pages. This is why you want to do your best to make things as interesting and as engaging as possible if you need to write a 10 page essay.

5 Ways to keep your reader interested in a long essay

You can use a couple of methods to keep your readers interested in even multi-page essays. Here are the best five ways to keep your reader interested in a long essay (it works for small essays as well, of course):

  • Be interested in what you are writing about and write using punchy words and sentences. Your writing will transfer your energy to your readers in most cases.
  • Keep sentences short and to the point. Also, avoid using technical terms your audience may not understand.
  • Write using the active voice. This way you make your writing stronger and more captivating. It’s one of the best ways to keep your reader interested in a long essay.
  • Insert engaging information and ask rhetoric questions. While you can’t directly ask your audience questions, you can keep them thinking by asking rhetorical questions that you will answer yourself later on.
  • Insert as many fascinating and interesting details as possible. As long as you always come up with interesting things to say, your audience will not get bored so easily. And avoid long pauses, if you are reading your essay to an audience.

Other tips to make long essay interesting

The five methods described above are great if you want your audience to keep attention in essay. There are also some other things you can do. You can use the style of authors you find interesting. You can provide your own opinion from time to time, especially when discussing a rather dry and uninteresting topic. You can use a classy thesaurus and vocabulary, making sure to avoid repetitive phrasing. This is how to keep reader's attention! However, it takes time and practice to do it right. University students and college students may not have said time at their disposal. This is why you will be very happy to learn that you can get assistance online from experienced writers. Even if you don’t know how to keep reader's attention, there are academic writers who do. All you have to do is get in touch with a reliable academic writing company (or essay writing service) and ask its writers to make your paper more interesting and more captivating. And by doing so, you also get a chance to learn from the pros!