Writing for the Web requires the style and gifts of the journalist, not the preacher. The Press has had more than 200 years to learn how to communicate effectively in print.
Learn from them.
Read books on journalistic writing. Observe the way newspapers and magazines tell stories.
They know the rules for clear communication and keeping a reader's interest.
"These skills pertain equally to the Web. We need to grab attention fast!" says journalistic writing expert Marshall Cook.
Be a squirrel
Read widely, especially secular newspapers and magazines. Useful material can come from the most unlikely places.
Cut out and file away stories, illustrations and ideas - they will be useful as a basis for future articles.
Facts, figures, quotes from famous (or infamous) people, testimonies, anything and everything. Keep a note-book to jot down useful information quotes and illustrations that you hear, or ideas that come to mind.
It
will be useful. Of course, you cannot use material word for word without permission. But remember, "Using one source is plagiarism, using two is research."
Be aware of copyright issues for both printed material, photos, and (if you use them) music clips.
Although websites must be easy to navigate, no-one will stay on a site that is badly written.
"Content is king." So let's put the King in the content, and learn to write with as effective and
readable style as we can. To become effective online communicators, we must also learn to be
information architects.
There are many online resources to help us learn better writing. Consider writing classes too -
these are often offered as evening studies in local education colleges. Maybe God will even call
you into full-time journalism or script-writing - there is a big need for Christians in these areas.
Easy on the eyes
It is harder - and 25% slower - to read print from a computer monitor than on paper. If people cannot easily read a page, they will lose interest and leave. Help them by:
- short sentences, with
active verbs rather than passive.
- short paragraphs - much shorter than would be used in print.
- lots of 'white space' around the text, with
<p>
breaks between paragraphs.
- use 'san-serif' fonts which are 20% faster to read on a computer monitor.
Click here to convert this page to less-readable serif font, then
restore.
Read more on this topic.
- aim for no more than 65 characters per line by using wide margins. Longer lines slow reading considerably.
- enticing, sometimes intriguing headings, which are not 'preachy'.
- use frequent subheadings to break up text and draw the reader on.
- small quick-loading graphics add interest to any page.
Learning more
The Web is a
different medium to print and requires a different
writing approach. Read:
Taking care of the stranger
Realize that many visitors to an English-language site are second-language speakers from other countries.
The resources from the
Plain English Campaign
are worth printing out for reference.
- Avoid idiom and slang from your country which others will not understand
- Explain references to places and situations which only those in your country know.
- Aim for a simpler writing style. Avoid complicated words and sentence structure. This helps even first language speakers to read quickly. "We are not here to impress, but to express."
- Assume zero Christian knowledge.
Revise and edit and revise
Never put a first draft of writing online.
Revise and edit
many times. It is usually possible to cut word-length by 25% or more, and increase clarity at the
same time.
Brevity is essential.
Ask other writers to critique your pages, and be humble enough to accept their advice.
This is even more important if you are writing webpages in a
language which is not your primary birth language.
Kill the typos
Of course you should use
spell-check!
But this won't find grammatical errors such as
it's (only ever means 'it is', never
'belonging to it'), and
who's (only ever means 'who is', not 'belonging to
[that person]'). Apostrophe with 's' never means more than one of anything - it only ever means
'belonging to' or indicates a missing letter e.g.
who's.(Avoid
banana's, video's,
apple's to mean 'more than one'). This applies to numbers and abbreviations too - 60s and
CDs is correct, 60's and CD's (though commonly used) are not really OK. The only time an
apostrophe should be used for a plural is when the meaning would otherwise be totally confusing
or meaningless, e.g.
do's and dont's.There are other easily-made mistakes such as
loose meaning 'lose' which rob a web-page of credibility. (One possible trick is to
delete these common words from your spell-check dictionary. Then they will always display as
errors, so you can assess correct usage.) Bookmark
Common Errors
as a useful reference.
Hyphens
Hyphens however are under-used. They can link words together in a logical way. This is important where there are several adjectives which belong together. For instance:
The ticket is first class but The first-class ticket
That fact is well known but The well-known fact
Without the hyphen - and especially if the line breaks after the first adjective - meaning is temporarily lost. (And on the Web,
unlike print, the point at which a line breaks to the next line is variable.)
For the same reason, it is better to hyphenate 'no-one'. By enclosing it in
<nobr>
tags, you can ensure that a hyphenated word never breaks, in most browsers.
Consistent house-style
It is also important to use a consistent style of punctuation. Use our
house-style/grammar guide to
help you. It also carries many other resource links, dictionaries and thesauri.
Online training
- Christian Writers Help - distance learning for writing techniques. A few classes a free, others are pay-for. Includes links to various free tools. Monthly email newsletter.
The Judy Vorfield column
Judy Vorfield's syndicated column on effective writing is updated every few weeks.
Bookmark the page for her latest tips.