WebLearn Blog

I attended an ITLP Writing for the Web course in OUCS yesterday and thought I’d share some tips I picked up.

Before you start your web page or website you should do the following:

1. clarify the objective – write this in one sentence
2. clarify the audience
3. gather relevant information
4. think about the structure

When writing material

• the first paragraph on a page needs to be the conclusion; this is the opposite way around to ‘normal’ writing – the attention span of readers on the web is low, you need to snare them and reel them in straight away otherwise the message is lost
• the first sentence of a paragraph should say what the paragraph is about (see above)
• make your page scannable:
  • use highlighting for key issues but don’t overdo it, readers often only scan the headings, highlighted text and hyper-links
  • use bullet-point lists
  • make it concise – web readers have less patience
    • keep it short – 15-20 words per sentence
    • keep it simple
    • cut the waffle
    • focus on the action – use active voice not passive voice: “dog bit man” is active “man was bitten by dog” is passive
    • focus on the reader – use appropriate language, be positive, remove all ambiguity
    • get it right – use correct punctuation and spelling, this gives the reader confidence
    • make it look good – use images, subtle use of colour, use sans serif fonts
      • when using the WYSIWYG HTML editor in WebLearn always start a page from a template (click the button)
  • use meaningful and correctly nested headings (this is also very important for accessibility)
    • the first two words of a heading are the most important: use “Diana killed in car crash” not “Car crash kills Diana”
    • use content specific words at the start of a heading: use “Hurricanes – general information” not “General information about hurricanes”
  • have one idea per paragraph
  • have 2-3 sentences per paragraph
  • put the conclusion first – make it concise
    
• make your pages accessible (this is a legal requirement for educational material)
• use consistent terminology
• think about what the reader needs to know not what you want to tell them
• use browser plug-ins to help authoring (or develop the text in Word first but remember to take care when pasting into a WYSIWYG HTML editor – see below)
• if you are developing a series of pages then make sure navigation is included, Dreamweaver will help you do this; breadcrumb menus help here
  • use spell check and grammar check
  • Usability guru Jakob Neilson’s http://useit.com/ website
  • ITLP courses

Using Word to Author text

It is a good idea to prepare your text in Word but do not paste this directly into a WYSIWYG HTML editor, if you do this the resultant web page will be a complete dogs breakfast with all sorts of unwanted mark-up being stored behind the scenes.

When using Word:

• use the spell check and grammar check
• use Tools > Options > Spelling > Readability Statistics to report on use of passive voice
• don’t worry about highlighting, formatting and layout
• copy the text with a mouse and post into a plain text editor such as Notepad
• copy the text from Notepad and paste into the WYSIWYG HTML editor – this will remove all the garbage that Word inserts behind the scenes
• format the text in the WYSIWYG HTML editor

Useful links

Usability

• Visit ‘Usability Guru’ Jakob Neilson’s http://useit.com/ website
• Visit http://usability.gov/

Style Guide

• refer to the University’s style guide

Accessibility

• Special Needs And Disability Act (SENDA)
• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Grammar and Spelling etc.

• http://www.editcentral.com/gwt1/EditCentral.html
• use the Oxford English Dictionary – the University has a subscription
• read “Eats Shoots and Leaves” by Lynne Truss
• read “Rediscover Grammar” by David Crystal