This week we looked at writing for the web, blogging, citizen journalism and so on. Web-users are mostly goal-driven and are usually not reading online for pleasure. Some factoids: 79% of online readers scan rather than read word-for word, users also read 25% slower than if reading from paper. Users also scan large tracts of text in an F-shape scanning mode; their eyes normally scan in this manner instead of reading the complete passage. With this in mind, we’ll take a look at some useful information to aid you in your online penmanship / citizen journalism.
Effective guidance of your reader:
An effective visual hierarchy is important, visual cues guide the reader through your site. Descriptive headlines and road-signs usher the reader in a gentle directional flow. One must write with the most frequent visitor-type in mind, but not at the expense of the generic / casual visitor – there is no need to talk down, just simplify. Simple language coupled with chunking of content is the best methodology to achieve this middle ground.
Some pointers:
– Non-descriptive links are pointless
– Write with ‘printing’ in mind
– Use categories and tags to organise posts
– If repurposing offline content, edit out at least 50% of the detail
Legibility & Readability:
Legibility and Readability are also important factors to consider when writing. Line length and line height all play a part, justification is also important. Spacing will also impact on the visual element of your page, too much ‘white space’ can leave a passage disjointed and scattered in appearance. Typeface and fonts are another aspect to consider, and can also vary depending on target-audience, topic and tone of the piece.
In the digital domain, editing and tweaking of online content is much easier than before. Digital text can be tweaked in various intricate ways such as tracking, letter-spacing and so on.
The Plain Language Movement:
The above is a good example of what constitutes for effective web penmanship. This organisation endeavours to promote the accessible and effective language in all aspects of writing, aspiring to remove the unnecessary jargon and complex terminology that is rampant in many fields.
- “Clear writing, effective organization and inviting presentation are all keys to creating readable, informative documents”
Tautology, synonyms, euphemisms, clichés and idioms should all be avoided as they don’t serve the purpose of effective writing. Also, avoid neologisms and vulgarity whenever possible. So, that was a brief perusal of of online writing guidelines to consider based on this week’s class. While only encompassing some of the main pointers – this should be a good starting point for any budding online wordsmith!
Further Recommendations:
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. is a classic style guide which aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style.
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