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Writing for the Web
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Writing for the Web
Readings
pp 143-151, Chapter on EDITORIAL STYLE. [Others would disagree with Lynch & Horton about opening new browser windows].
The Scent of Information (Wired) - Scientists find that the mathematical models used for animals searching for prey work well to describe humans looking for stuff on the Web.
Writing for the Web, sections 1,3,5.
Scanning vs Reading
The majority (J.N. claims 79% in 1997) of users scan web pages rather than reading word-by-word. Why?
Eye-tracking studies report a typical 'F' pattern: Once across the top of the page, down the left side, then reading in to the right perhaps once more.
Writing to be scanned
Nielsen's 1997 study How users read on the web recommends...
- use highlighting and lists liberally;
- web content should have a length about 50% of similar print content;
- write concisely and 'objectively';
- split up long content into several web pages and limit scrolling
Examples
Writing titles
"Microcontent"
Titles, headlines, and e-mail subject lines must carry a heavy burden on the Internet. They must often represent a web page with little or no supporting context. There are many situations where your web page is competing for attention with other pages, and only the title does battle:
- Search engine results typically show only what you've set in the <title>..</title> of your page, and an excerpt from your page that you have limited control over.
- Browser tabs show <title>...</title> content, and a site icon (favicon), if you've set one.
- Bookmark lists (You do want people to bookmark your content...right?) may show only your title, and then perhaps only the first part of your title alongside the titles of many other sites.
- Viewing a web page visitors will typically *not* be able to take in your whole page at one glance, but see perhaps only the top-left 800 x 400 pixels or so of your web page. Their eyes will be attracted first by a prominent, concise headline.
- E-mail software typically displays a list of Subject lines. People who get a lot of e-mail may decide to delete or read a message solely based on the content of the subject line and who it's from.
The point is not to write something bombastic to grab the spotlight, but to honestly point out what is most unique.
A very concrete suggestion that comes out of this is that you should write <title> content that starts with what is unique to the page, and moves to the more general. Compare:
Compare:
Use e-mail like text-messaging: See if you can write an e-mail
message in the next few days where the subject line communicates everything that
needs to be said, and your recipient doesn't even need to open your e-mail!
Writing structure
The inverted pyramid writing style (typical also of print news--see for example the LA Times) is generally acknowledged as most appropriate for scanning:
- Conclusions first
- Supporting arguments in descending order of importance
But, a counter-example, "Three Little Words" illustrates a successful break with inverted pyramids (though it does follow many of the other recommendations for on-line writing--most prominently breaking a long piece into many, smaller web pages), suggesting that content is still more important than style.
Writing for the ages, not the moment
Jakob Nielsen finds that more than 80% of the pageviews for his columns at useit.com occur after they've entered his archives. Remember that often, people find your page through a search engine, and this may be months (or years) after your content has been published. You may need to adapt your writing style appropriately.
- 'In January of 2007' rather than 'this month'.
And of course, you should assume that future employers may google you and stumble upon anything you've ever written online :->.
E-mail
E-mail is not exactly the topic of this course, but in light of the dangers of e-mail it might be worth pointing out the book "Send: The Essential Guide to Email....", by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. The authors recommend that...
- you never forget that e-mail is a permanent, searchable medium,
- there is no default "tone", and so you ought to compensate by *reassuring* the person you're writing of your good intentions and positive inclinations toward them,
- you can use emoticons and exclamations more freely than you would in other media
Style tips
From the Associated Press Stylebook and Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age (ouch, start reminding Paul when he violates these...)
- If you're not blind, you have sight, but you browse to a site (that is, location) on the World Wide Web.
- Capitalize Web and World Wide Web.
- Capitalize Internet.
- Online is one word.
- The jury is still out, but Paul recommends: e-mail with a hyphen in it. In print you typically cite someone's e-mail address in italics and enclose it in parentheses, e.g., Paul's (paulmr@goshen.edu).
- Capitalize, but don't enclose in quotes, software titles, such as Microsoft Word or Linux.
- Capitalize URL. Typically, the URL of a website is set in print in italics, for example, Goshen College's home page, www.goshen.edu. Don't capitalize a URL at the beginning of a sentence if it is lower case. Do add the period when a URL ends a sentence. Never hyphenate a URL for the purpose of breaking a line.
- Writing numbers with numerals ('6 students') rather than spelling out ('six students') helps scanning.
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