#13720
Resources for Editors and Writers of Websites
This 'starter list' was originally compiled for a presentation on editing websites given at the Australian Society for Technical Communication (ASTC) annual conference in Sydney, NSW, Australia on 30 October 1998. Several of the sites listed have quite extensive lists of links to further information
#18191
Resources for Web Content Writers
Free articles on writing web content and intranet content. High quality, strongly focused web content impresses both visitors and search engines. The Web is so competitive, you need to get your key message across in two seconds. These articles help!
#24132
Respect: Last Word of Advice for Online Copywriters
I'd urge you to treat your readers with respect. Respect for site users or e-mail and newsletter recipients is not a way of writing, it's a state of mind. It's the belief everyone should be treated decently, be told the truth. It's a genuine discomfort with even the idea of treating people as if they were suckers to be taken advantage of. Writing with respect is about being honest, with both your audience and yourself.
Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2001). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#26140
Certain expressions in web content get users all discombobulated. Relative expressions of time and place need an anchor, a key, right there in the text. Some common confusers follow. They would not be a problem in other circumstances. But on the Web or intranet, every page must make sense in isolation.
McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#25221
Search Engine Copywriting: Focus on One Topic
There are three approaches I take to the creation of a page, and each has a significant impact on how high the listing for that page appears on Google.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Search
#25315
Set Yourself Apart From The Ordinary
When visitors arrive at your site for the first time, the best outcome you can hope for is that they think, 'Excellent, I’m in exactly the right place. I can find what I’m looking for right here.' The problem is, the more you write the page to suit the needs of the reader, the less character it has.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#19060
The Seven Qualities of Highly Successful Web Writing
A description of the seven qualities of highly successful web writing. In future articles I'll write about each one separately, but here's the list in brief.
Henning, Kathy. ClickZ (2000). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#28146
Seven Tips on Writing a Web Site Landing Page Sequence
Much has been said and written about how to optimize individual landing pages. However, when you want a web site visitor to take an action, if often takes more than one page. So how much work do you put into optimizing not just the primary landing page, but also the pages that follow? Here are some tips to keep in mind as you write and optimize a landing page sequence.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2006). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#25275
There's a small problem online. An over-abundance of boring writing. Boring writing in emails. Boring writing on Web sites. Excruciatingly self-indulgent and boring writing in Web logs. Boring newsletters. You get the idea. But does it have to be this way? And do commercial emails and newsletters in particular have to be so boring?
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2002). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#24123
There's a small problem online. An over-abundance of boring writing. Boring writing in emails. Boring writing on Web sites. Excruciatingly self- indulgent and boring writing in Web logs. Boring newsletters. But does it have to be this way? And do commercial emails and newsletters in particular have to be so boring?
Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2002). Design>Web Design>Writing
#25957
So You Want a Website: Tips for Diving into the Internet Ocean Without Getting Drowned
Practical advice for anyone trying to find a good web designer. A few semi-technical topics, but mostly plain English pointers.
Bennaco (2003). Design>Web Design>Writing>Minimalism
#25584
The Spirit of Paulo Freire in Blogland: Struggling for a Knowledge-Log Revolution
Weblogs and knowledge-logs, or 'blogs' and 'klogs,' have emerged into the post-dot.com bubble online world as a notable (and often non-commercial) social phenomenon. While some hear echoes of Web homepage voices from the mid-1990s, the blogging phenomenon during the Iraq war may have taken Web cybercultures in new directions.
Boese, Christine. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#31048
A Spoken Genre Gets Written: Online Football Commentaries in English, French, and Spanish 
Many recent studies on computer-mediated communication (CMC) have addressed the question of orality and literacy. This article examines a relatively recent subgenre of CMC, that of written online sports commentary, that provides us with written CMC that is clearly based on firmly established oral genres, those of radio and television sports commentary. The examples analyzed are from two English, two French, and two Spanish online football (soccer) commentaries. The purpose of the study is to examine oral traits and genre mixing in online football commentaries in the three languages and carryover from the spoken genres of radio and television commentaries to this developing genre, following Ferguson. Special attention is paid to Web page design. The study reveals that form and content of online football commentaries are strongly affected by the style of the online newspaper.
Pérez-Sabater, Carmen, Gemma Peña-Martínez, Ed Turney and Begoña Montero-Fleta. Written Communication (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Online
#26128
Standards for Online Content Authors
The standards on this page include non-technical standards relevant to all web authors and technical standards relevant to some web authors.
McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2005). Articles>Web Design>Style Guides>Writing
#26133
Stop Creating ROT (Redundant, Outdated and Trivial Content)
Redundant, outdated and trivial content (ROT): you're soaking in it. First and second generation web sites and intranets are full of ROT. It's almost inevitable when you have a web site but no system for reviewing content regularly.
McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#19461
Strategies for Condensing Online Text 
Online writing experts recommend that writers and editors write less text when composing for the screen. To do so effectively, writers need specific strategies for condensing text that go beyond the usual advice for clear, concise writing. In addition, they should be cautious when advised to arbitrarily cut the word count in half, as some experts suggest. This paper offers strategies for condensing online text that result in fewer words overall. It also suggests strategies for making online text seem shorter, even if the word count remains unchanged. This paper concludes by discussing the risks of condensing text too rigorously. Providing complete information with nothing extraneous requires knowing not only what readers need, but what they do not need.
Troffer, Alysson M. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Writing>Web Design
#10042
Style Guide for Online Hypertext
When writing for the Web, the documents usually become part of a larger collection. It's important that the site follows a common structure so all documents are available in a logical place. For a document, the style is also very important. By using a common style, you ensure that a reader can use the site effectively. Some important aspects are indicating the status of the document, using images and icons, and writing in a device-independent way.
Engelfriet, Arnoud. Web Design Group, The (1997). Reference>Style Guides>Web Design>Writing
#19911
Successful Online Presence: Relevance
'Relevance' means the ability of a site to present information that satisfies the visitor's immediate needs; if it doesn't meet those needs, then it's (by definition) irrelevant to that visitor. Obviously, our goal in designing a site is to make its content as relevant as possible to visitors. The key to understanding what makes something relevant lies in recognizing that relevance is never a static, unchanging aspect of the content you provide: Some things must change regularly and some must stay the same, but some may fall into both categories at different times. Knowing which information falls into each category, and when, can be tricky, because it relies on sound knowledge of the people who will be using your information and whose needs you'll be satisfying. Unfortunately, those needs change.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2002). Design>Web Design>Writing
#21020
Tagline Blues: What's the Site About?
A website's tagline must explain what the company does and what makes it unique among competitors. Two questions can help you assess your own tagline: Would it work just as well for competitors? Would any company ever claim the opposite?
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#21625
Take My Advice: Don't Learn XML
If you're a developer interested only in the data-oriented side of XML, and if you don't care about document authoring (writing books, articles, manuals, love poems, Web pages, whatever), feel free to ignore this article. If, on the other hand, document authoring is important to you (you're a technical writer, an HTML markup author, manager of a documentation group, an anonymous pamphleteer) and you're trying to decide whether it would be worthwhile for you to learn XML and use it for authoring documents, stick around. What you learn might save you a lot of time and spare you from some unnecessary frustration.
Smith, Michael. O'Reilly and Associates (2000). Design>Web Design>Writing>XML
#22856
Taking Legacy Information to the Net
To make information most usable online, it should be written and structured for use there. However, given the limits imposed by finite funding and time, we cannot always restructure and rewrite existing information for online use. In many cases, Adobe Acrobat can be applied to effectively put current libraries online for access from CD-ROM, LAN, an intranet or the WWW. This paper reflects the author's view of Acrobat when used to present technical information.
Dembek, Raymond E. STC Proceedings (1997). Design>Web Design>Writing
#29893
Teaching Web Design in the Technical Writing Service Course: Steps Toward a Planned Evolution
This study uses an online survey of technical communication educators to examine trends in the technical writing service course with regard to web design. Participants for the study were representatives of programs in technical communication in four-year institutions of higher education throughout the United States. The study contributes to research into the function of the technical writing service course in the current technological climate. Identifying trends is one component in an evaluation that will aid effective evolution of this significant course.
Brewer, Pam Estes. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Web Design>Technical Writing
#23349
For starters, many people working on large Web sites hold more than one of these identities or have held more than one of these roles in their career to date, so it makes little sense to limit one's goals to one of these titles.
Kelleher, Liz Hines. ADE Bulletin (2001). Careers>Web Design>Writing>Technical Writing
#28834
Three Reasons to Add Articles to your Web Site
Even if you're selling furniture or herbal supplements, the addition of a large number of articles to your site offers several benefits.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2007). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#25316
Three Reasons Why Content is Still King
Back in the late nineties, the phrase ‘Content is King’ was repeated and repeated and repeated by site owners and marketers alike. The belief was that the more content you had, the greater the number of visitors you would attract. Of course, the content had to be well written, relevant and easy to find. Many sites built very successful businesses as a result.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing
