i was using the tag the_content('read more')

i styled the more-link.
and the problem is, unless I add p tags around the content in the wordpress post,
it just makes a big p element around the content AND the button that says read more together and its terrible!

so I thought I could write

the_content('<div class="more-button">read more</div>')

this works but in the markup i now see a read more link in the p tag with the content, another one in the button and another one for some reason in its own p tag!?

help