Writing for the Web Content Management Support Team Writing for the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Writing for the Web

Content Management Support Team

Writing for the Web

Todays session:

1. Audience

• Identifying and understanding your audience and their needs
• Message, conversation, relationship, trust

2. Style

• Inverted pyramid
• Active voice
• Positive and objective
• Concise and focused

3. Technique

• 1. Writing headings and subheadings
• 2. Writing paragraphs and sentences
• 3. Writing lists

4.Writing summaries

• 5. Writing links
• 6. Revise, edit, cut, repeat

Engaging with your Audience

Talk to audience

• Use your site visitors’ words
• Write in a conversational style
• Write with confident tone
• Use you / your and we /our
• Develop the relationship
• Build trust
• Makes it more personal and engaging
• You will gain more time to get your message across
• It is authentic a is first step in building credibility and your reputation

Advantages

Active voice

Active vs Passive Voice

• Active voice: Subject + Verb + Object
• Passive voice: Object + Verb + Subject

Active sentence = You must fill out the form Passive sentence = The form must be filled out by you

Example

Advantages

• Easier to understand
• Uses fewer words, making the writing more concise and efficient
• Creates a faster-moving narrative, which makes for easier writing and more

engaging reading

• Cleans up the sentence and helps prevent grammatical mistakes

Positive

• 1. Being positive uses fewer words and has a lighter tone
• 2. Negative words require more effort for the reader to understand

Negative Positive Do not write negative statements Write positive statements 5 words 3 words Negative Positive not many few not the same different Not strong enough weak Did not remember forgot

Concise and focused

When writing use Plain English

1. Sections

• Details
• Direction

2. Sentences

• Those that reinforce point already made
• Those that add no value to message

3. Words:

• Adjectives
• Needless words
• Meaningless modifiers
• Redundant categories

4. Phrases

• Wordy phrases
• Meaningless phrases

When writing avoid unnecessary:

Examples of Needless Words

• very
• almost
• seems
• possibly
• rather
• sort of
• may
• generally
• pretty
• kind of
• perhaps
• apparently
• relatively
• indeed
• certainly
• obviously
• surely
• exactly
• somewhat

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words” - Mark Twain

Inverted Pyramid

1. Start by telling the reader what they need to know

• 2. Most important content

at the top of the page

• 3. Follow by the most

important supporting information

• 4. End by giving the

background / detail

Need to know Nice to know

This keeps the important information at the top of the screen, above the fold, where users can see it without having to scroll.

Writing headings and subheadings

“A heading shouldn’t read like a sentence: a sentence should flow, but a heading should stop you and grab your attention” McGovern p120

1. Heading should be eight words or fewer 2. Use site visitor keywords (the words they care about) 3. Choose first two words carefully 4. Put your heading in order to help cognitive flow 5. Heading should be unique particularly page heading 6. Avoid known bad practices: centred, capitalisation, underlining

• Facilitates quicker scanning so user can identify the section the need
• Gives the user anchors to help them start read the text
• Help signposts users to the content that they need

Advantages

Writing paragraphs and sentences

Paragraphs

• Make every paragraph short
• Ideally 2 to 3 lines
• 25 to 40 words
• No need for an introductory scene setting sentence
• Start paragraphs with strongest sentence
• Try to rewrite the paragraph so it becomes a sentence

Sentences

• Use short words that are familiar to user
• Try to merge sentence together
• Try to rewrite the sentences so they become lists

Writing Summaries

“If the heading is the hook, the summary is the line that pulls you in. The summary gives the readers all the information they need to decide whether to read or not” McGovern p123

• 25 words or fewer
• Write the summary last
• Include site user keywords
• Focus on facts and what is compelling
• Sell: encourage the reader to read more
• Quickly cover who, what, when, where, how
• The last sentence needs punch to get users to read on

Advantages

• Alerting the user that they are in the wrong place
• Reassure the user that they have found what they are looking for
• Helps with search engine optimisation

Writing lists

Introduce each list with a title and an introductory sentence:

• Write list items concisely
• Only between five and ten in each list
• Five – unfamiliar
• Ten – familiar to user
• Try to keep list items to one line
• Start each item with a different word
• There is no need to use ending punctuation in a list
• Put longest item in list at end so it does not distract from user reading other items

Writing Links: Good and Bad Links

Bad links

• Are broken
• Wastes users time
• Use clever, made up words
• Look like other links on the page
• Are lost in paragraphs full of other links
• Use non-descriptive link text (click here)
• Use University jargon unfamiliar to students
• Distracts the user from the task they are trying to complete

Good links

• Are descriptive
• Are action oriented
• Place important words at the front of link text
• Use plain language and common words
• Are a maximum of four words
• Obvious to the reader

Writing Links: Internal and External

Internal links

• Avoid over-linking to other parts of your site
• Avoid putting links in sentences because this makes it harder to read
• Links at end of sentence / paragraph / section / page
• Put links in separate lines after the content
• Bullet listed links make them stand out
• Have unique beginnings for all your links

External links

Remember: external links draws attention away from University content

• Use if they add value to your content
• Name the site the link will lead to
• List the best quality external sites
• Remember your referral reflects on your site's quality
• Add details about what can be found on external site
• Include warnings about possible problems on the destination site

Writing Meaningful Links

Meaningful links

• Keep short
• Avoid links with similar names
• Tell the user what to expect
• Launch and land on same name
• Start with a verb (action orientated)
• Use keywords words the user cares about)
• Don’t use an URL as link text e.g. www.sheffield.ac.uk/history
• Make link emphatic part of sentence / paragraph (preferably at end)
• Connect to other we resources
• Helps the user predict what will happen
• Is a step in helping the user achieve their task

Purpose of links

Writing Links: Example

a. To request a transcript click here b. You can book at place on this page c. … is the general rule. More d. in the UK on this link e. ..advice centre as a useful web page f. go to www.sheffield.ac.uk/rs/services g. …sources of support.“ take a peek h. Student Status here. i. …the case study. view here j. Click the link to receive updates k. send an email to…. l. download here

Weak links Stronger Links

a) Request a transcript b) Book a place c) Check visa rules d) apply to the Embassy e) staying safe in Sheffield f) Support for researchers g) Browse Mind “for better mental health” h) Obtaining a Tuition Fee Summary i) See the case study j) Sign up to the newsletter k) Report a incident l) Download Student Minds (PDF 1.6MB)

Revise, edit, cut, repeat

1. Read your copy as the reader would. Does it achieve your / their

• bjectives?

2. Read it out loud. Does it make sense? 3. Read again, this time checking the structure 4. Read it a final time to carefully check spelling, grammar and punctuation.

• Schedule in the time and avoid interruptions.
• Let it rest between revisions (you may be too close
• Use dictionaries, a thesaurus and style guides
• Take your time and concentrate.
• Get someone else to look over it for you.
• Everybody makes mistakes so don’t beat yourself up over any that you find.

Editing copy properly can take time so:

Further Reading (Books)

Books:

• Krug, Steve (2004) “Don’t Make Me Think!”, 2nd edition, New Riders
• Felder, Lynda (2011) “writing for the Web” New Riders
• Handley, Ann (2014) “Everybody Writes”, Wiley
• McGovern, Gerry (2006) “Killer Web Content“, A & C Black Publishers
• Richards, Sarah (2017) Content Design
• Redish, Ginny (2012) “Letting Go of the Words”

Websites:

• 4 Syllables (Writing Tips)

https://4syllables.com.au/resource/

• Nielsen Norman Group
• https://www.nngroup.com/topic/writing-web/
• Plain English Campaign

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/

• Readbility Test Tool

https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/sss/web/guide/writing-for-the-web