Writing for the Web

If you are writing with the intent to publish your material on the Web, you will need to adjust your writing style to maximize your effectiveness. Instead of beginning with background material, as you would in a typical academic essay, begin with your conclusion or thesis. Place the most important supporting information next, and finish the article with background material.

Why the radical shift in structure? According to Jakob Nielsen of Sun Microsystems in Writing for the Web, 79% of your Web readers scan Web pages rather than reading them word-for-word. Readers who scan your text will not scroll through long documents looking for your main points.

In addition, readers who read from a monitor read 25% more slowly than they would read the same document in print. Whenever possible, cut any extraneous material from your text. The word count of Web documents should be 50% less than print documents of the same nature.

Here are some suggestions to help you improve the effectiveness of your Web documents:

• Create headings and subheadings for your content to help your readers access information quickly.
• Create a Web site rather than a Web page, moving supplemental information off your main page.
• Create a hyperlinked table of contents so readers can navigate through content.
• Use bulleted or numbered lists to present information quickly and readily.
• Highlight key terms using colour or bolded text.
• Insert a horizontal line break as a visual clue to a shift or break in topic.
• Be consistent in design throughout the site.
• Provide navigational devices throughout the site to help your reader move from page to page and back home again.

Ready to get started constructing your own Web site? See Making a Statement in the Online Resources section of the Resource Browser.