Adapt to your audience when writing

Research shows, people don't read on the web, they scan.

People rarely read word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking
out individual words and sentences.

In research, 79 percent of test users always scanned new pages; only
16 percent read word-by-word.

Email newsletters are even more abruptly dismissed.

As a result, Web pages must employ scannable text, using

- highlighted keywords :: hypertext links are one form of
highlighting; typeface variations and color are others.
- meaningful sub-headings, not "clever" ones.
- bulleted lists.
- one idea per paragraph :: users skip additional ideas not in the
first few words in the paragraph.
- the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
- half the word count (or less) than conventional writing

References ::
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9606.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

And this from 2008 ::
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_stats_are_in_youre_just_skimming_this_article.php

Although people spend more time on pages with more words,
they only spend 4.4 seconds longer for each additional 100 words.
When you add more words to a page, people will only read 18% of it.

On an average visit, users read half the information only on those
pages with 111 words or less.

People spend some of their time understanding the page layout and
navigation features, as well as looking at the images.

People don't read during every single second of a page visit.

On average, users will have time to read 28% of the words if they
devote all of their time to reading.

More realistically, users will read about 20% of the text on the average page

The truth is that people don't read very much, often scanning text
instead of reading.
Eye-tracking studies validate this finding.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_stats_are_in_youre_just_skimming_this_article.php