Online reading requires a different kind of focus. We’re easily distracted by ads, chat notifications, and emails, and we have an endless, ever-growing stream of information from around the world that begs for our attention and time.

This makes it hard for you as a writer, blogger, or business owner to attract your audience’s attention and keep them interested and thirsty for more.

This article will help you engage your readers by making some simple changes to your writing style and content.

Scannable Content

Make your readers’ life easier

– or don’t bother writing at all. Nobody’s going to read a 20-line paragraph. Structure your content in a way that’s easy to skim and scan on a smartphone or tablet. People want to be able to choose what to read and what to leave behind, and writing novel-like content is turning them away.

Use bullet points, headlines, and strategic formatting

to make it easier for the reader to navigate and understand your content. Highlight important takeaways and write short paragraphs of 4 sentences or fewer.

Be sure to use numbers.

They give people a reason to read because you’re giving them information they can quantify and readily understand. Consider these two headlines:

Ways you can engage your readers and keep them coming back for more

5 ways you can engage your readers and keep them coming back for more

Do you see how the insertion of the number makes this headline so much more concrete, and the whole article a whole lot more valuable?

That’s the power of numbers. People want to know in advance what’s in it for them and giving them numbers gives them this reassurance. They know they’ll easily find tips they can quickly and easily use.

A great tip for ensuring your content is scannable and user-friendly is to re-read only your highlighted content, headlines and subheadings, text in bold or italics, and anything else you’ve drawn attention to through special formatting.

If it gives you the gist of the whole article, then you’ve done a great job!

Write With Style. Take a different road.

Engaging a reader is about offering something new. Something they’ve never heard or thought of before. It might be hard depending on your subject matter or business niche, but it’s nonetheless possible.

Use a metaphor to speak for a well-covered topic and don’t be afraid to contradict ideas and trends everybody else seems to agree with. Take the road less traveled and speak from a place of confidence.

As long as you back your claims with facts and arguments, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Your readers will be exhilarated to read something fresh, something daring!

Set the Right Tone and Have The Best Emotional Involvement

If you’re the blog author for a multinational company, too-casual language is a big no-no. It sounds unprofessional and makes your company seem unreliable.

On the other hand, if you’re a food blogger and your writing is filled with scientific jargon or too much historical information, this will distance you instead of bringing you closer to your audience. To engage your readers you need to speak their language.

Tone is the personality of your writing. It’s how you sound in your readers’ minds and how they picture you. Decide whether it is going to be defined by its humor and wittiness, its astuteness, or its neutrality.

Implement these three tips and you will have more people reading through your content!

Ultimate Vocabulary guarantees to help you increase your vocabulary knowledge! Learn more words and apply them in your writings.

Learning vocabulary is tricky. Teaching vocabulary is also tricky; it’s an open-ended process that’s often laden with setbacks. You try new practices only to realize they perplex your kids rather than support them in learning new vocabulary faster.

New technologies can be the answer, but sometimes they seem a tad intimidating at first. They often appear too complex to set up, much less use. Busy parents don’t need a program that requires you to learn to program software before you even start the first vocabulary lesson.

eReflect’s professional software design team perfectly understands the concerns that homeschooling parents are faced with, and have developed a user-friendly, fun program for learning new vocabulary at home: Ultimate Vocabulary™ EDU.

The program is unique in its curriculum-compatible approach to vocabulary building. What this means for you is that no matter in which English-speaking country you and your family live, the software can be tailored to that region’s curriculum so that you can rest assure your children are learning what they’re supposed to. This is particularly useful for homeschooling parents who need to comply with specific state or school district requirements.

Cloud Based

The EDU release of Ultimate Vocabulary™ is on the cloud. This means that:

– Access is available anywhere, anytime. Going for a 4-day trip to another state? No worries. You can access your accounts from any internet-enabled device and practice vocabulary while on the go! It offers you the ease and simplicity of instant access and instant syncing across devices for smooth, uninterrupted practice day in and day out.

– No installation is required, and you don’t need to download the software on your computers and laptops. It’s all accessible via the cloud.

– Upgrades are handled automatically by the eReflect support team, directly on the cloud, ensuring seamless and uninterrupted practice for you and your children.

A 142,647 word database

Enough said. This is a dictionary-sized database. You can offer your children the opportunity to expand their vocabulary to a greater extent than ever before. This essential skill with words will help them become:

– Better communicators, both writing and speaking

– Knowledgeable, reliable individuals who inspire confidence and respect

– Ahead of the curve when taking high-stakes exams like the SAT and the GRE

– Creative and original thinkers able to express themselves with clarity and precision

What’s equally important for many homeschooling parents with younger children is the fact that vocabulary building with Ultimate Vocabulary™ EDU is fun. The activities, lessons, and games are all designed by language experts so that they optimize the learning experience and ensure the user is engaged, motivated and focused throughout.

Social Media Integration

Ultimate Vocabulary™ EDU is integrated with Facebook. This is an easy way for your children to share their success with friends and family on the popular social network.

After successfully completing any practice session, the user is prompted to share this success on Facebook. By doing so, your kids will feel the satisfaction of having their hard work acknowledged by others, something that motivates them to try even harder so that they can again share their success on the social network.

Recognition of hard work is a fundamental aspect of success, and the work of vocabulary building is no different. So why not offer children the pleasure of sharing their success with their peers?

Fun Learning

Hundreds of lessons, addictive vocabulary games – both new and classic ones – all offer your children a wide spectrum of learning options.

Learning is comprehensive with this cutting-edge software, but best of all, it’s fun. What’s noteworthy about Ultimate Vocabulary™ EDU is how much work has been put into developing a learning environment that’s easy to use and at the same time appealing to users of all ages. Children and adults alike will be eager to try out the various games and activities because everything about the software is so efficiently designed and put together.

Science-driven Learning

But it’s not just fun. The program’s approach to vocabulary building is informed by years of research. Using the latest insights from scientific studies, Ultimate Vocabulary™ EDU promotes learning through an approach known as “depth of processing.” In other words, the user is immersed in a wealth of information for any given word to ensure they master it completely, not superficially. From definitions to real-life usage examples, etymology to spelling, the user masters one word after the other in the most comprehensive manner possible.

Personalization

Ultimate Vocabulary™ EDU offers a winning combination of science-driven learning and lesson customization. Not two children are the same, so why should their practice sessions be?

Each student can tailor their learning according to their goals, capacity, and needs. If something is too challenging, it can be overwhelming for a student – on the other hand, something that’s too easy can make them feel bored and uninspired to practice further. eReflect strikes a balance by offering practice personalization.

Ease of Use

eReflect has taken ease of use a step further. The user can navigate the software’s environment confidently as soon as they first log in.. Everything is intuitively designed and placed to ensure that the user is confident and comfortable with the interface.

Progress Tracking and Reporting

Ultimate Vocabulary™ EDU comes with powerful reporting. You and your child will be able to review their personal progress and analyze their strengths and possible weaknesses through easy-to-understand chart data.

Your child’s progress is tracked automatically by the system, every time they practice. You’ll get powerful insights to help you make data-driven decisions as to how to optimize their vocabulary building even further.

eReflect just gets it.

Don’t make homeschooling any harder than it already is – not when there are solutions you can use to make learning a million times more fun and efficient.

Some words create warm and fuzzy feelings when we hear them: lullaby, chocolate, firelight. Other words send shivers down our spine: alligator, zombie, thunderstorm. But what is it about words that makes us have these unconscious reactions? Part of it is experience – anyone who has been startled by a snake will automatically think of that moment the next time they hear the word, and a cold winter snuggled under a warm blanket brings back memories whenever you read the word “comforter.”

Researchers recently found a possible link that explains trypophobia, or “fear of holes.” In a study done by Geoff Cole at the Centre for Brain Sciences at the University of Essex in England, images of things like a blue-ringed octopus or a lotus seed pod can set off fear reactions in people, and that this emotion may be connected to the fact that many poisonous plants and venomous animals have rings or other brightly-patterned coloring that would have warned off our earliest ancestors. In the depths of our brains, we still connect those patterns with danger, even when we’re looking at something as harmless as a piece of Emmentaler cheese.

Sometimes the same word can be used to mean something that’s both good and bad. For example, if you’re pervicacious, it means that you’re very stubborn. On the other hand, if you look at the word’s etymology, you’ll see that it comes from the Latin root vincere, which is the same root that gives us the words victorious and invincible. Being stubborn for the right reason can lead to good things. Hold firm to your resolution to improve your vocabulary, and you’ll come out a winner in the end.

Nourish your vocabulary and you won’t have the conversational equivalent of a nutrient deficiency. People and animals who practice geophagia (literally “dirt-eating”) generally do so because there’s something missing in their diets. Minerals like calcium or iron, and substances like salt, are found in soil, mud, and cliff faces where elephants, parrots, and even butterflies will eat and lick the ground to get the supplements not found in the plants and fruits they eat. If you make sure to get your daily dose of words, you’ll have a healthy vocabulary, and will be hungry for more good words.

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.
– George Santayana (1863-1952)

If you want to be someone that other people look up to, and go to for advice, then you need to words to express the knowledge that you have to share. A good vocabulary is essential, because with a wealth of words to draw on you’ll always have the right ones for any situation. Being able to come up with the perfect phrase at just the right moment is a hallmark of both education and erudition. Many well-known writers and philosophers were praised for their skill with words, and their aphorisms are remembered and shared today.

An aphorism is a wise saying. Technically, only the original speaker of that saying or phrase has uttered an aphorism; once the saying is repeated over and over, it is more commonly referred to as a maxim, although the two terms are now fairly interchangeable.

If you desire many things, many things will seem but a few.
– Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

The word aphorism was first used in the 16th century in English, and has its roots in the Greek word horizein, meaning “to limit” or “to set a boundary.” Essentially, an aphorism is a phrase that contains a complete thought, set apart from other phrases because of its originality. If you want to set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd, you’ll need to develop your vocabulary so that you can share your original thoughts. As Benjamin Franklin pointed out, the more words you learn, the more you’ll want to learn, and there are enough words in the English language to keep you learning for years to come.

Vita brevis, ars longa, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.
(Life is short, and art long, opportunity fleeting, experience perilous, and decision difficult.
– Hippokrates of Kos (460-370 BCE)

If you did a survey of people’s New Year’s resolutions, you’d probably find one item on almost all of those lists: losing weight. Maybe it’s the thought of a new year and new beginnings, or the realization that the holiday season and all its feasting has left a rather substantial impact on the waistline, but excess poundage is definitely something people want to get rid of at the end of the year. Other people look at the new year as an opportunity to get rid of old habits, or to clean out their closets and get rid of old clothes. In any case, it’s a good time to make a new beginning and think of the extraneous things you could leave behind that will let you make room for something new and better.

The meaning of the word extraneous is fairly easy to figure out when you look at the first half of the word. When you think of the word “extra” you might have a good feeling, like the one you get when the person making your peppermint mocha adds a bit more sweet whipped cream than usual, with a smile and a wink. On the other hand, you might be thinking of having too much, being burdened, carrying around a heavy load that you’d like to get rid of. A lot of websites and books and even television shows are based on the concept of “getting rid of clutter” to make life easier and simpler, and that’s definitely included in the meaning of the word.

Synonyms for “extraneous” include irrelevant, nonessential, superfluous, and redundant. In conversations and writing, you can practice being concise and using only the words you need to communicate your thoughts. When you’re communicating in a clear and precise fashion, you’ll find that it’s easier to connect to other people and impress them with your ideas. Getting into shape is always a good goal, and if you find that your pantry is full of nonessential snack foods or baking mixes, you could donate them to a local food drive. Instead of continuing to accumulate a clutter of toys in a child’s playroom, go through them and donate ones they’ve outgrown as well, to local churches or community centers.

But don’t throw out the words you’ve been adding to your vocabulary! Unlike packaged cake mixes and plastic toys, vocabulary words take up no room at all in your brain – there’s always room for one more. Make your resolution this year to fatten up your vocabulary, and start 2014 with new words and a new perspective on language.

For many people around the world, it’s a time to give and receive gifts. The spirit of sharing is something that brings families and friends together, but you can also give yourself a gift to enrich your own life. Investing in your education, subscribing to a professional journal to help you advance your career, signing up for that yoga class you’ve been thinking about, or just taking a day off of work are all things you can do for yourself. When it comes to your own health and well-being, it’s no time to be ungenerous.

Today’s word is one that you’ve probably heard applied to Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, the tight-fisted and selfish miser who learns to give. Parsimonious didn’t always have a negative meaning, though. While today it means “unwilling to spend money, miserly, stingy” the word originally referred to simply being thrifty and saving money. Holiday gift-giving, whether to yourself or others, doesn’t mean that you have to spend all of the money in your bank account, of course. Sometimes the smallest things are the ones that are most appreciated. Here are some examples of ways to share the wealth that won’t make you feel like a spendthrift*:

Read bedtime stories to your children, or volunteer at a local community kid’s center to help struggling readers. Literacy is key to helping children succeed in school and beyond, and they’ll be grateful that you’ve helped them discover the world of books.

Don’t forget that books make great gifts too! If you can’t think of a good book for kids your local library will have recommendations. Adults may appreciate a gift certificate to a bookstore instead so that they can pick out their own favorites.

Make time for yourself and you’ll have more time and energy to share with others. Studies have shown that even a brief nap or 15 minutes of meditation during the day will boost your mental state, and that’s something that helps make every holiday a happy one!

* spendthrift: someone who spends money recklessly, a profligate

Essential GRE Words is a video lesson series specifically designed to help you boost your GRE score. This is the fastest and easiest way to improve your GRE score – because you are learning the words that appear most frequently on the GRE Exam.

Includes definitions, synonym/antonyms, and examples all sourced from the Ultimate Vocabulary software.

Essential GRE Words is a video lesson series specifically designed to help you boost your GRE score. This is the fastest and easiest way to improve your GRE score – because you are learning the words that appear most frequently on the GRE Exam.

Includes definitions, synonym/antonyms, and examples all sourced from the Ultimate Vocabulary software.

It’s time to go out into the fields and gather in all of the new words that have been added to the English language recently – or at least a few of them. There are so many words that get created, and so many others that change in meaning, that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. However, the editors at the Oxford English Dictionary are up to the challenge, continuing a century-long tradition of keeping one main resource and reference for English vocabulary words. In the September update, they added new meanings for words like fudge and barnstorm, along with a list of dozens of words that have come into being to communicate terms and concepts that describe ways of working, of living, of speaking, and of viewing the world around us. Here are few of the words that were incorporated into the OED in September:

aquafarm / aquafarming noun / verb
With the increasing need to find ways to feed people around the world, how to get a harvest from the world’s oceans is a topic of conversation in local communities and global government organizations. Aquafarming may be the answer in some places. Also called aquaculture, this can mean several things, including (1) the practice of raising fish or mollusks in cages in the ocean; (2) using ponds or other enclosed areas to raise fish; or (3) combining traditional agriculture with fish farming, such as systems that take the waste from the fish and use it to fertilize crops, which in turn are used to feed the fish. Various forms of aquafarming have been providing food for people since at least 2500 BCE.

buzzworthy adjective
Any time something new is discovered – or something old is rediscovered – it creates “buzz.” The level of buzz is even higher these days due to Twitter, YouTube, and other social media, and anything that deserves its level of exposure and comment is described as buzzworthy.

fleishig adjective
A word based on the traditional Jewish food restrictions concerning meat and dairy, this Yiddish word has now been added to the dictionary (with its alternate spelling of fleischig) and the meaning of “containing meat.” The word milshig (milschig) was also added, with the meaning “containing dairy.” Both words are commonly used to describe what foods are and are not kosher.

ohmigosh interjection
We’ve talked about text speak before, and how abbreviations and acronyms are becoming standard English. You’ve probably seen (and used) OMG in your online conversations, but probably haven’t used it when you’re talking face to face with someone. This new word isn’t really new; the spelling omigosh is also fairly current, and both are a condensed form of the phrase “oh, my gosh!” that we’re sure you’ve said at some point!

Learning new words expands your vocabulary, but it also broadens your horizons and prompts you to think about things in new ways. As a form of self-improvement, vocabulary study will help you get ahead in school and at work. If you find words that describe characteristics you’d like to develop, a new vocabulary word can also help you work on cultivating new habits and getting rid of old ones. Sometimes simply having the word for something will inspire you to experience it for yourself. Today’s word is a good example of that.

The word magnanimous (mag-NAH-nih-muss) is a combination of two Latin words, magnus (“great”) and animus (“soul”). It’s obvious, then, what the word means: someone who is magnanimous has a great soul. There are several specific ways this meaning is interpreted, as illustrated by the word’s synonyms.

If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it. – Greek philosopher Epicetus (55-135CE)

A person who is magnanimous is generous and giving. They’re quick to help out with charitable donations, and not inclined to hoard all their money for themselves. In this case, the word is most often used to described someone who is wealthy, but who does not hesitate to share that wealth.

Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all … It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. – American President George Washington (1732-1799CE)

A magnanimous person is also quick to understand, and is generally forgiving. They are kind-hearted and chivalrous and even though they are strong, they don’t pick on the weak, but instead help them.

But nevertheless, even in these misfortunes, nobility of the soul is conspicuous, when a man bears and digests many and great misfortunes, not from insensibility, but because he is high spirited and magnanimous. – attributed to Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322BCE)

When someone is magnanimous, they’re also generous towards themselves. Because they’re not always thinking about themselves, they’re altruistic, but because they know to treat themselves as kindly as they do others, they are also lenient and quick to forgive. They work hard on self-improvement, knowing that when they are confident and strong, they will have the strength to help people around them.

Strengthen your vocabulary, and you’ll see how easy it is to share that wealth of words with others!