10 web-writing tips from the Academic Skills team These are derived from the excellent Web-writing training material by Stephen Lloyd Training (www.stephenlloydtraining.co.uk). Tips apply to screens intended to contain mostly, or all, text. 1. Top down Put the most significant information first, near the top of the screen (hot space). Readers’ attention dwindles exponentially the further down they go, and few readers will read on into zones reached only by scrolling (cold space). Hint: why do you think that commercial sites usually hide their terms and conditions near the bottom of a long screen in very small font size? 2. Build a structure, not scaffolding Structure information logically, using powerful, clear headlines. Good headlines fit the space without overwhelming it, make immediate sense, tell a story and attract reader interest. Generate a relationship between your reader and yourself by using personal pronouns and questions. Don’t repeat headlines in the subsequent text. Consider using a brief link index at the top of the page to enable your reader to leap to the text s/he wants to read. 3. Use summaries as navigation tools If information is very detailed, it is better to put up a two-line summary with a link to a more explanatory .pdf. This way your readers do not wade through a lot of text which may not deliver the outcomes they want, they can choose between options, and they can export a record of the information in a print-friendly format. Hints: from the reader perspective, humans love the empowerment of being given choices; from your perspective it’s much quicker to change/correct a document than possibly have to redo a whole web-page. 4. Start memorably Make a strong start. Try to kick off your first sentence with a powerful verb or significant key word. Your first sentence should be something you want the reader to remember from the site. 5. Condense and clarify Convey your message using at least 50% fewer words than you would in a print version: the screen is a stressful reading space, so give your reader less to do. Aim to keep sentences to about 20 words and avoid elaborately punctuated, multi-clause sentences. One point = one sentence. If you are tempted to write a long list sentence, format it as bullets: these are much easier to read on screen. Ensure that any bullets make sense with the grammar of the preceding sentence, and are clearly part of a paragraph or section.
© UWIC Academic Skills team, December 2009
student.uwic.ac.uk/academicskills 1
6. White space, not white noise With the standard 19” screens of today, it is vital your reader can separate the parts of a screen. Try to keep paragraphs to between five and seven lines and no more than three sentences. While single sentence paragraphs are acceptable on websites, do not separate all your text into single sentences. Do, however, have a clear space between paragraphs. If you are using a heading to introduce a section on a longer page, try to structure the section so the reader can see all of it on one screen with heading at the top. Avoid right justifying paragraphs as this generates ‘rivers’ of varied space in the text which detract from readability, particularly for those with impaired reading skills. If you can control the line height, a small element of ‘leading’ such as the 1.1 used in this document, greatly assists readability. 7. Emphasise and connect Use text emphasis with caution and discretion i.e. bold. Avoid italics as these are a great strain to read on screen. Don’t use colours or underlining to make words stand out as the communicative grammar of the internet now associates these with hyperlinks. Use meaningful links rather than URLs e.g. “Visit the UWIC external site for more information” makes a much better impression than “Visit http://www3.uwic.ac.uk/English/Pages/home2.aspx for more information.” 8. Don’t patronise your user Assume basic internet literacy. Do not end a sentence with ‘click here’ when there’s a button next to it. Incidentally, label buttons where possible. 9. Appoint a continuity director If you are working on a jointly authored site, agree a spelling, punctuation and language policy e.g. selecting which variant spelling of words such as organisation and organization to go with. Agree any acronyms used. You may also want to optimise certain key words for searching purposes, and avoid other words giving the wrong impression. Ideally appoint somebody with an editing role whose job is to spot and correct inconsistencies. 10. Blowing hot and cold Be aware of the impact of warm and cold words. Examples of cold words are: afraid, disappoint, doubt, unfortunately, problem. Warm words are: agree, care, fair, hope, new, opportunity. Compare “If you have doubts about this proposal” to “Although you’ll want to consider this proposal carefully”. The first sentence starts with the intrinsically doubtful ‘if’ word, the second ‘Although’ indicates that something more significant is to come.
© UWIC Academic Skills team, December 2009
student.uwic.ac.uk/academicskills 2