#25222
The Cautious Writer, 2005: Protect Your Income
I'm no expert on the economy, but I don’t see a lot of signs of growth and smiling faces in 2005. As writers, we are in the fortunate position of being able to protect ourselves against fluctuations in the economy, to some degree. To protect your own income over the next year, here are some suggestions.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#23922
La manière dont vous allez organiser votre contenu est fortement dépendante du produit que vous allez éditer : page d'accueil, chronique, interview, brève, dossier, lettre d'information,...
Hardy, Jean-Marc. Redaction (2004). (French) Articles>Web Design>Writing
#25436
Common Visual Design Elements of Weblogs
Weblogs (blogs) have been heralded as a new space for collaborative creativity, a medium for breaking free of the constraints of previous forms and allowing authors greater access to flexible publishing methods. This generalization seems extreme: genre studies done by Crowston and Williams (2000) and Shepherd and Watters (1998) lend credence to the notion that weblogs are evolutionary descendents of other visual media, such as newspapers and pamphlets. In this study, we apply content-analytic methods (Bauer, 2000) to a random sample of weblogs as a means of exploring current visual trends within the blogosphere.
Scheidt, Lois Ann and Elijah Wright. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#31915
Company Name First in Microcontent? Sometimes!
Typically, you should deemphasize your company's name in links, but a new guideline recommends frontloading the name for search engine links under certain conditions.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Hypertext
#26146
Content for Tourism and Hospitality Sites
My worst experiences with hospitality sites have been to do with vague location, online timetables, poor follow-up communication, and out of date information. I have wasted days as a result, which I hate.
McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Writing
#25492
Conversations in the Blogosphere: An Analysis "From the Bottom Up" 
The 'blogosphere' has been claimed to be a densely interconnected conversation, with bloggers linking to other bloggers, referring to them in their entries, and postingcomments on each other's blogs. Most such characterizations have privileged a subset of popular blogs, known asthe 'A-list.' This study empirically investigates the extent to which, and in what patterns, blogs are interconnected, taking as its point of departure randomly-selected blogs. Quantitative social network analysis, visualization of linkpatterns, and qualitative analysis of references and comments in pairs of reciprocally-linked blogs show thatA-list blogs are overrepresented and central in the network, although other groupings of blogs are moredensely interconnected. At the same time, a majority of blogs link sparsely or not at all to other blogs in the sam-ple, suggesting that the blogosphere is partially interconnected and sporadically conversational.
Herring, Susan C., Inna Kouper, John C. Paolillo, Lois Ann Scheidt,Michael Tyworth, Peter Welsch, Elijah Wright and Ning Yu. (We)blog Research on Genre Project, The (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#24592
Converting Print Read to Web Scan Text
Web sites are full of print media text. Shame on them. Users are in a hurry. They hate dense blocks of lengthy blabbering. They ignore most text on their hunt for Relevant Content. Find out how to convert Print Read text into easily consumed information for the web.
Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Scanning>Writing
#11891
Converting Science News for the Web
With the Internet emerging as a primary newsgathering source, many traditional media outlets have converted their products for online viewing. This paper explores how two science news magazines, New Scientist and Science News, have approached this challenge. Elements of hyptertext theory are also included.
Carsten, Laura D. EServer (2001). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Scientific Communication
#31617
The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome
It is perhaps the market forces driving web development projects that find us aligning ourselves with the lexicons of marketing and advertising rather than publishing. As a result, we have lots of “brand identity guidelines,” but not so many “style guides” (for content, at least). We have “strategists,” but no “commissioning editors,” and we more often “go live” than “publish.” Hence, we tend to first think “copywriter” when trying to get our content sorted, whereas very often an editor is the person we should be engaging. That’s not to say there aren’t editors in our industry—there are—but they tend to be a part of large online publishing projects after launch rather than a part of the development lifecycle from the beginning. (Somehow, we’ve become a kind of freak cousin of publishing, ignoring that industry’s expertise.) In many cases, an editor would be a great addition to our process as well as, in some cases, a better and more rational investment than a copywriter.
Ronalds, Pepi. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#18181
Reading from computer screens is about 25% slower than reading from paper. As a result, people don’t want to read a lot of text from computer screens: you should write 50% less text and not just 25% less since it’s not only a matter of reading speed but also a matter of feeling good.
Communication Circle, The (1998). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#25553
Weblogs are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore for those of us who spend much time reading the Web. Also known by the inscrutable nickname 'blogs', weblogs are something of a hard nut to crack. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that a great deal of weblog content today is about weblogs and weblog technology. What are weblogs? What's the big deal? Why should we pay attention? We attempt to answer these questions in the essay that follows.
Grumet, Andrew. Grumet.net (2002). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#28839
Discovering That Writing for the Web is Different...Every Day, for the First Time
Every self-appointed pundit on the planet is saying that users are the new 'owners' of the online medium.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2007). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#28147
Do Internet Users Want Deep Content or Immediate Gratification?
For a long time I have been an advocate of quality content on web sites. And now I am conducting an experiment that pitches quality content against immediate gratification.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2006). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Writing
#31510
Little things mean a lot. Especially online. Microcontent—or the headlines, decks, subheads and other 'small' pieces of web copy—actually do most of the communicating on your web site. Handled poorly, microcontent can confuse and frustrate web visitors. Here's how to write microcontent to communicate to—instead of discombobulate—your readers.
Wylie, Ann. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Metadata
#24202
Editing Web Pages: A Second Look
How to edit Web pages--with revision tracking--using Microsoft Word.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Editing>Web Design>Writing
#19022
You can use writing techniques to exploit the Web's strengths while avoiding its weaknesses.
Kilian, Crawford. New Architect (2001). Articles>Writing>Web Design
#18742
La escritura hipertextual, que tiene como unidad básica el enlace y como soporte lógico el electrónico, se debe realizar de forma diferente a la escritura convencional. A los usuarios no les gusta leer en pantalla, por lo que agradecerán cuanto más les facilitemos dicha tarea. En este artículo se tratará la correcta presentación de contenidos y elementos de interacción (enlaces) en los documentos hipertextuales.
Hassan Montero, Yusef and Francisco Jesus Martin Fernandez. Nosolousabilidad.com (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Writing>Hypertext>Web Design
#23953
Eviter le Langage Trop Promotionnel
Internet n'est pas un mass media réceptionné passivement comme peut l'être la télévision ; Internet est un média qui est activé par l'utilisateur. C'est ce qui explique sans doute l'échec relatif de la publicité en ligne à laquelle les internautes ont tout le loisir de ne pas prêter attention. Les surfeurs n'ont pas de temps à gaspiller : ils s'orientent tout droit vers les informations qui leur sont utiles et fuient tout ce qui ressemble à de la publicité.
Redaction (2004). (French) Articles>Web Design>Writing
#25537
A Fairy, a Low-Fat Bagel, and a Sack of Hammers
One bright, sunny day, the Bad Internet Fairy closed down every company and organization site on the web. But even though all those company and organization sites had closed down, the internet was still ablaze with activity.
Usborne, Nick. List Apart, A (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#20260
When did weblogs stop filtering the web and begin cluttering it instead? Rich Robinson on digital glut and creative solutions.
Robinson, Richard. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#24125
Focus On WHAT You Are Going To Say
Focus all your energy on figuring out WHAT to say. Get that right and everything else will fall into place.
Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2002). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#25321
Four Things Every Web Site Headline Must Achieve
Here are four things you need to keep in mind, four elements that demand your attention, four separate ‘audiences’ you need to satisfy.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#28143
Four Tips on Writing a Web Site Home Page
Home pages can be tricky, simply because your page not only has its own job to do, but also has to support a group of second level pages. Here's how I approach writing home pages...whether a site has a total of ten pages or a thousand pages.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2006). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#31579
Friend or Foe? Web 2.0 in Technical Communication
The rise of Web 2.0 technology provides a platform for user-generated content. Publishing is no longer restricted to a few technical writers—any user can now contribute information. But the information coming from users tends to be highly specific, whereas technical documentation is comprehensive but less specific. The two types of information can coexist and improve the overall user experience. User-generated content also offers an opportunity for technical writers to participate as “curators”—by evaluating and organizing the information provided by end users.
O'Keefe, Sarah S. Scriptorium (2008). Articles>Web Design>Technical Writing>Social Networking
#23706
From Writer to Content Provider
As a regular user of the web or even as a writer for online magazines, you may not have picked up on a trend I've noticed from my contacts with web entrepreneurs. Increasingly, those who aim at selling big on the Net understand that attractive prices, huge inventories and responsive online ordering aren't enough to spark fantastic traffic. They call the missing ingredient 'content' and crave its power to inspire repeat visits.
Yudkin, Marcia. Yudkin.com (2001). Articles>Web Design>Writing
