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Adding Emphasis to Plain Text Writin
by Darlene Bishop

As an entrepreneur, you probably realize the importance of adding emphasis to your business writing -- as in the form of strong, underline and italics -- especially when creating advertising copy or ezine articles. The problem is how to add emphasis when writing copy that will be viewed as plain text.

Here are some ideas to help you draw attention to your writing without the benefit of the popular word processing features.

Use Asterisks

Setting off a word or phrase with asterisks is the plain text equivalent of bold.

Emphasis can be created in a *number* of ways when writing in plain text.

Use Headings and Sub-Headings

Headings, such as the one above, especially when set off by equal signs, carets, "greater than" symbols or dashes, work well to draw attention to important points in your text.

Vary the Indentation

Simply indenting a paragraph by one or two spaces draws added attention.

Be sure to keep your indentation uniform, however.

Use UPPERCASE

Uppercase letters are another great way to emphasize important points, but use them sparingly! One or two words is sufficient. Too many uppercase words has the same effective as shouting in your reader's face.

Exclamation Points are Great, too!

Use exclamation points to drive home your message. A sentence that ends in a period simply does not evoke the same response as the same sentence when followed by an exclamation mark.

This is a great deal.

This is a great deal!

Copyright © 2000 Darlene Bishop

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