Week 4i: Introduction to Writing for the Web

Writing for New Media

While new media allows for new means to communicate with the world, it is also making it harder for one to stand out from the crowd.


And while we can experiment with technology to express ourselves in new ways, language rules remain and it is important to adapt good language use to the demands and opportunities presented by modern technology, as writing information for the web demands different skills and style than those for print media.


Thus, effective writing is important. Planning and focusing what you want to say will help you to connect better with your audience, be it readers for a personal, corporate or e-commerce website.



Well-written text is becoming increasingly important for a well produced web site, and will make all the difference in whether the user will read what you have written, and come back for more.

Writing for the Web requires understanding how readers behave when reading text online.


What do you remember how users read on the web?

· They scan than read word-for-word
· They read in the F pattern
· They are impatient and move from page to page
· They are put off by too much text
· They prefer to download and print a document and read it in hardcopy
· They may not be bothered to scroll down to read more text
· Some users only read the link texts
· They are put off by hyped-up, advertising text


Activity:


Discussion question: What are the implications of the above for your web page and for writing for the web?

Important note: How users behave when reading online will decide how writing online should be done.

Key Principles for Writing for the Web

Your webpage and web writing needs to be:

concise: cut down the text by 50% (compared to hardcopy form)
Steve Krug: Get rid of half the words on the page, then get rid of half of what’s left.

objective: cut down on marketing language and build trust and credibility with user

scannable: allow users to quickly look through and gather the needed information



Any full-text articles that you would like users to read should be made available as full-text versions that can be downloaded and read on paper, eg in PDF format.

Your writing needs to speak directly to your audience and your audience is often an international one.