Ten useful tips to help you write well for the web
August 8th, 2008 Posted in Interesting stuffAll write?
Writing for an audience is a tricky business I reckon.
I’ve been working as a radio journalist for 16/17 years now, and a web journalist for 6/7 years, and I’m convinced that there’s no empirical way to sum up what makes good writing.
It’s easier to say what’s bad writing in my opinion … but for every ‘how to’ guide, there’s going to be a different opinion or viewpoint that contradicts it.
It’s more a case of big organisations agreeing a ‘house style’ and sticking to that across the board for the sake of consistency.
Another business might interpret the rules a completely different way, but so long as everybody in the organisation signs up to a style, and then applies it, I think that’s the best you can achieve really.
I’ve been involved in making radio shows since 1983, (employed to do it since 1991/92) and the best presenters are often those who throw away the rule book and do their own thing.
The same applies to writers in my view - there’s no accounting for taste, and some people you’ll love, others you’ll hate.
So this post is an attempt to pull together some general rules which apply to everybody, but which remove the ‘personal taste’ elements.
The joy of a blog is that you can create your own style with no-one waving a styleguide at you and reprimanding you for using ‘whose’ rather than ‘who’s’!
And exclamation marks … that’s another thing people hate too! (Oops, I just used another one there.)
10 useful websites offering practical writing tips
I really like this blog, I’m going to add it to my blogroll.
Although it’s a bit crowded for my tastes, there’s so much useful and practical information on here.
I’ve linked to an article on effective headline writing for search engines.
LSE stands for London School of Economics and Political Science.
Don’t be put off by that, what a surprising place to find such a clear, practical and useful guide to writing for the web.
Primarily this website is for selling writing courses, but very kindly they give us the benefit of their experience without us having to part with any cash.
It’s a tad wordy for my tastes, being a lover of list and bullet points, but there’s lots of useful information in here.
This is a really good article, but bearing in mind the topic, terribly formatted.
It wants a few more bold headings and bullet points if you ask me.
It’s a very good article though, and as we all know ‘content is king’, give it a read.
Now here’s an interesting article about writing for the web. The author, Joel Walsh, says:
I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing.
He goes on to give a really practical list of tips for writing effectively and well with search engines in mind.
A one page, ‘top 10′ list of practical tips.
If you can’t face any of the links I’ve offered here, do skim this one as it’s a brief and on-message as you can get.
I’ve referred to this blog before, it’s got a lot of useful advice on it.
This article is a ‘Top 10′ (have you noticed how many blogs use that as a headline technique?) and the advice on offer is a little less technical than in the other links I’ve listed here.
My favourite tip - and this takes me back to the point I made at the beginning of this post, is to relax about your writing:
Don’t worry too much about correctness: Find a voice and use it. Most readers will overlook, and nearly all will forgive, errors in punctuation and spelling. Leave Fowler and Roget on the shelf, unless they’re your old friends. Write clearly and simply and write quickly, for if you are to write often you must neither hesitate or quibble.
What great advice!
One page, well set out, easy to read and scan.
This page looks like it was created as a printout as it fits beautifully onto page of A4 … maybe one to stick on the wall next to your desk?
Don’t be put off my the obvious commercialism of this website, if you scroll down the page there’s a long list of links to excellent features on improving your writing style for the web.
Includes the ‘inverted pyramid’ technique.
That’s intrigued you hasn’t it?
This article is only one page, but it’s useful, interesting and has pictures!
Posted by pt23
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