Writing for the Web

Overview:

Aspect Training's 2 day Writing for the Web course aims to provide web content authors

and contributors with the fundamental skills and knowledge to express themselves

effectively in the web environment. In addition to highlighting the distinctive features of

web audiences, web content, web page structure and web writing styles (registers), it

also addresses the practical tensions, trade-offs and workarounds involved in realising

different web writing objectives.

By the end of this course you should be able to:

• · Understand the key issues and decisions involved in writing for the web
• · Write website content which is appropriate for and targeted at different types of

reader

• · Communicate different types of information appropriately on the web
• · Order or sequence content to speed readers to their ultimate goals
• · Structure information effectively for onsite and offsite readers
• · Write modularised content which can be shared, re-used and minimises duplication
• · Write web text which helps rather than hinders user navigation
• · Write texts which are differentiated and help user search
• · Write content which lets users access content in the way that suits them best
• · Write easily maintainable and revisable content
• · Minimise confusion among readers
• · Minimise unwanted queries from readers

Prerequisites:

• · A reasonably good command of written English is expected
• · Technical knowledge of HTML, XHTML, CSS and other web standards is not required
• · Essential, content-related, aspects of these standards (e.g. document structure, metadata,

separation of content from presentation, etc) will be covered in the course.

Course Topics:

Overview

Common objectives, issues and constraints

Target audience(s)

Interactivity

Web standards and conventions

Statutory and contractual requirements

Hypertext

Metadata

Navigation

Document structure

Web Audiences

Differences between Web and Print/Broadcast

Reading versus skimming versus scanning

The need to locate and navigate

Expectations and preferences

Control, interactivity and feedback

The reading context: work, home, travelling

Different Web Audiences

Visitors versus searchers: onsite versus offsite

readers

Abilities and disabilities

Focus, inclusivity and exclusivity

Linguistic differences

Age differences

Cultural differences

Physical differences

Levels of knowledge, experience and expertise

(specialist or general)

Labelling, Headings, Titles and Summaries

Support for scanning

Support selection

Vocabulary

Brevity

Understandability

Call to action

Out of context presentation

In search results

Indexes and site maps

Page Copy and Copy Writing

Page Structure

Order: The Inverted Pyramid

Page Copy and Copy Writing continued

Discursive style

Plain English

Vocabularly

Sentence structure

Paragraphs

Keyword placement

When to use links

Where to place links

How to label links

Proofreading, Editing and Editors

Responsibility and accountability

Style guidelines and consistency

Lean text and copy writing expertise

Grammar and spelling

'Webifying' offline documents

Selecting content

Sub-editing headings, labels, pull-quotes, etc

Metadata

Why metadata matters

Finding appropriate content

Selecting from similar content

Organising, ordering and indexing content

Re-presenting information in different contexts

The different forms of metadata in a web page

Metadata describing the whole page's subject matter

Page structure and structual markup as metadata

Metadata applying to single page components, e.g.

headings, links, images, tables, etc.

General metadata standards

HTML, XHTML and XML metadata

W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Dublin Core

Specialist metadata standards: some public sector

examples

e-GIF and the e-Government Metadata Standard (e-

GMS)

Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary (IPSV)

Esd-Standards controlled lists

Local Authority Websites National Project (LAWs)

Practical exercises