Welcome to Writing for the Web Login to See Film awards and prizes What can be done with this page?...
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Transcript of Welcome to Writing for the Web Login to See Film awards and prizes What can be done with this page?...
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Welcome to Writing for the Web
• Login to• http://www2.le.ac.uk/training/writing
See Film awards and prizes• What can be done with this page?• There is no one right answer.• Don’t be afraid to change things.
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Who are You?
• Your name?• Where do you work?• Experience of writing
for the web?• Expectations?
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Writing for the web
Mike SimpsonSenior Web Communications Officer
Teri BrowettIT Training Specialist
Division of Corporate Affairs and PlanningIT Services
www.le.ac.uk
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Writing for the Web: Overview
• Print vs online• Structure• Writing style• Consistency
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The great ‘Writing for the Web’ information huntPlease don’t start looking yet!
Task 1: Jan Zalasiewicz feature: Of Barrie and Barrande
• Which three places did the King of France travel to, accompanied by his grandson’s tutor, after he was deposed?
Task 2: Botanic Garden website• What are the three different groups of
Whitebeams represented in the tree collection in the Arboretum?
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Web writing is fundamentally different to writing for print:
• People read the web in a different way.
• They are impatient, intolerant, busy.• No-one reads the web for fun.• Website visitors have a specific task
which they want to complete.• They don’t care about anything else.
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Paragraphs
• Break long paragraphs at natural points.
• Two or three sentences is fine. (Just one if it’s long.)
• Tabloid newspaper structure, without a tabloid writing style.
• You don’t have to understand what the text is about.
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Bullet point lists
• Bullet points are often frowned on in print…
• …but they are a web-writer’s friend.• Any list of three or more things can
be bullet-pointed.– Sometimes just two things or even one
thing.
• Use the bullet-point icon.• Use numbering if the order is
important.
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Headings and subheadings
• People don’t want to read the whole page – just the bit that they want.
• Web users scan a page, looking for subheadings, links, highlighted text etc.– “Is this relevant to me?”
• If you try to make them read the whole page – they will go elsewhere.
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Your writing ‘voice’• Write in the second person
– ‘You can do this’, not ‘Staff can do this’
• Write in an active voice– ‘X does Y’, not ‘Y is done by X’– “Exams are taken by students at the end of
each year.” Would be better as?
• Write positive instructions– What people can/should do
• Write clearly– Plain English, please!
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J&A
• Jargon and abbreviations• Think about your audience(s) and the
language they use.• Approach each page separately.• Don’t be afraid to simplify – readers
will simply skip over explanations they already know.
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Plain English, please…
• Postgraduate taught (562 hits)• Pastoral care (351 hits)• Programmes of study (177 hits)• Presessional course (12 hits)
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Cut out the waffle
• Get straight to the point• Be as terse as you can without being
rude• People don’t want a chat, they want
answers• They want the most important
answer first*– *the answer to the most important question
• The inverted pyramid
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The inverted pyramid
The important bit
Some context Optional stuff Limited interest
The important bit
Some contextOptional stuff
Limited interestUsefulness decreases down the page.
No-one has to get past irrelevant stuff to find
useful stuff
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Linear vs non-linear
• Print communication is linear…– …because it has to be.
• But the order is often arbitrary.• Group things together by:
– Similar or overlapping content– Natural groups (under a single
subheading)– Amount of space required/available
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Emphasis
• CAPITALS DO NOT EMPHASISE• They actually make things harder to
read because they change the shape.• Italics do not emphasise either - they
change the shape of the letters.• Emphasise paragraphs using styles.• Emphasise words and phrases using
bold.
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Links: the essence of the web
• Provide links where these are mentioned:– Organisations– Other pages or other websites– People (if there is a relevant page)
• Make the word(s) into the link• Link to front page or deep link?
– Where will people probably want to go?
• Make your links meaningful and useful
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Three types of links to avoid
• http://www2.le.ac.uk/webcentre/plone/plan/webwriting/linksthatwork
• Links that take you to this page.
• Click here.
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PDFs – Portable Document Format
• Information in a PDF is not ‘on the web’.
• A PDF is a picture of a piece of paper.• Use only when:
– Users might to want to print it out, and/or
– It is important to show the layout of an existing print document.
• Would you produce a leaflet from screen shots?
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Structure – the bigger picture
• Biochemistry research page
• Recruiting Postgraduate Students: print vs online
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House style
• Rules of grammar, punctuation and spelling which are applied consistently within an organisation.
• Listed on the Web Centre• Always proof-read from a hard copy
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The best web page has just three components:
1. Everything a visitor wants.2. Nothing that a visitor doesn't want.3. Links to everything a visitor might
want next.
People read the web differently
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Good web writing has:
• Short paragraphs• A non-linear – but logical - structure• Subheadings• Bullet points• Useful links• No waffle
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Film awards and prizes revisited
• What can be done with this?• There is no one right answer.• Don’t be afraid to change things.
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Thank you• [email protected]• ext.2106• www.le.ac.uk/webcentre• WebNet – monthly newsletter