Uneasiness has crept up.
Vickie Sexton has been an eLearning designer for many years. She has many learners who return to new courses. She knows her content is engaging, persuasive, and mostly free from grammar mistakes.
But she also senses something is missing.
Does her writing lack flair? A sense of poetry? Is the rhythm out of sync?
On a lazy Sunday afternoon, Vickie browses the web thinking about buying a new MacBook. Or should she go for the Windows laptop?
She opens the Apple website,
And there she notices it …
The rule of three in Apple’s copy.
Apple’s copywriters know how to harness the power of three:
“Thin, Light, Powerful.”
And:
“Ready, Set, Done”.
And:
“Which makes it reliable, durable, and quiet”.
Is that the magic power of three? Is that what’s been missing in Vickie’s work? Paying closer attention, she sees groups of three phrases on almost every Apple web page:
“And with Apple Pay, you can unlock an entire world of online shopping that’s fast, convenient, and secure.
“iPaD mini 4 runs IOSP the most intuitive, advanced and secure mobile operating system in the world.
“Which means everything you do … playing games, surfing the web, enjoying photos and videos … becomes more personal, immediate and immersive.”
Is three a magic number?
Copy blogger founder, Brian Clark, explains the power of three by referring to the three-act story and to the Three Little Pigs, the Three Blind Mice, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Three Musketeers, the Three Wise Men, and the Three Stooges.
If you are a keen photographer or graphic artist, you will have come across the rule of thirds too.
Three seems magical, right?
But what about the number two? Why do we have two arms, two legs, two ears, and two eyes. Isn’t two the smallest number required for creating symmetry?
And symmetry is related to beauty.
Isn’t that magic?
As the New York Times Reports, research suggested that three arguments may be more persuasive, than two or four. But the scientific proof for the persuasive power of three remains elusive.
Trios may or may not be more persuasive, but they can create a sense of poetry and rhythm, making our content more pleasurable to read and adding stress to a statement. Pay attention to good writing, and you see threes popping up everywhere.