What you READ is what you get
What you READ is what you get
 
Web writing checklist
Make conversation
  • Listen to what users say, how they say it, then craft simple messages that genuinely touch interests shared by the company and its customers.
  • "Humanity" (Zinsser): be yourself, your style is you. Make it objective, not promotional.
  • Work for a unique voice, strong character, warm, honest tone.
  • Avoid technical jargon, marketese, all other insider lingo.
  • Do not overstate, boast, make vague, general claims.
  • "A conversation between 2 human beings rather than an announcement from manufacturer to consumer" (N. Usborne).
  • Be there! Keep content fresh, respond personally!
Make it active, sturdy, clear
  • Design (outline, think through) first.
  • "Omit needless words" (Strunk & White).
  • Use narrative - tell me a story!
  • Use simple words (e.g. "help," not "assist").
  • Surface the agent and action, so users don't have to guess who does what--active verbs push meaning along, suggest people doing things.
  • Use short, old real-life nouns that connect with emotions ("door", "dog", "sky").
  • Listen to what you write. Read it out loud to notice dead spots, lack of clarity, clumsiness.
  • Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite--with deadline always in mind!
Make it alluring, catchy, different
  • Find a fresh way to say it.
  • Take reader by surprise (short sentence, sudden question).
  • Trust your information (material) to make its own point, so readers can bring their own emotions to the story.
  • Hunt down, destroy all cliches and old, tired phrases.
  • Use short words, sentences, paragraphs.
  • Vary sentence length.
  • Be specific - show, don't tell.
  • Use sentence fragments.
  • Begin sentences w/ conjuntions ("But", "And") to grab attention.
  • Use one-sentence paragraphs for jazzy rhythms, accents.
Make it accurate
  • Print out document and physically mark every fact that requires verification.
  • Avoid relying on secondary sources.
  • Confirm and double-check primary sources.
  • Check all spelling, especially proper names.
  • Proofread all text before going live!
  • Copy URLs from digital documents rather than typing them out and risking typos.
  • Style guides rule!
Make it easy to scan
  • "Writing is visual. It catches the eye before it catches the brain" (Zinsser).
  • Distill to the esssence, especially on navigation pages.
  • Insert meaningful headlines and subheads (boldface).
  • Put links at end of sentences for findability and emphasis.
  • Highlight key words, phrases, and links.
  • Turn a series into a bulleted or numbered list.
  • Reduce page and menu length (less scrolling).
  • Move repeating categories of information into tables, charts, graphs.
  • Use punctuation that won't be missed on low-res computer screens (e.g., avoid ellisions , abbreviations, colons--use dashes).
Make it short
  • Cut any paper-based text by 50%
  • Make each paragraph short
  • Move vital but tangential or supplemental material
  • Beware of cutting so far that text gets ambiguous
  • Keep documents short: 600-700 words; if longer – PDF with punchy summary
  • Long document – break it up at about 1,000 words, use ‘page numbering’, encourage reader to ‘click’
  • Use pull-quotes to keep interest in long documents
Make it findable by search engines - SEO is key!
  • For SEO, there's no substitute for high-quality content--search engines are smart (get used to it)!
  • No matter what, keep target users in mind.
  • Plan, research, identify the best keywords (phrases) for your site before starting to write.
  • The best keywords balance a high number of search results with low competition from other sites in your industry.
  • Keywords in page titles are typically most effective for SEO, followed by meta descriptions, headers, anchor text and alt tags for clickable images.
  • Include key words in body text if (and only if) they won't detract from your primary task of communicating with you target users.
Make hot links
  • Make clear what the user will get from a link via pop up description, short link/big explanation, relevance label (e.g. star ratings).
  • Within a sentence, make the link the emphatic element - usually move to end.
  • Shift focus from links or linked-to documents to the subject at hand - link label should emerge naturally from content flow.
  • Establish, increase credibility with outbound links.
  • Write URLs that humans can read and search engine users can find (include keywords, if logical).
  • Make links accessible (i.e. to users w/ special needs) - alt. text, links in text, CSS/XML, relative font sizes, avoid abbreviations + acronyms.
  • Tell people about a media object before they download it - file size, media type, description of subject matter; warn before and during (status) downloads.
Make the sale
  • Get attention > show a need > satisfy the need > prove superiority and reliability > ask for order.
  • Keep relationship (social) and closing sale (commercial) separate.
  • Make pitch at right time, place, in right tone.
  • Carefully organize your selling points--prioritized and presented in logical order.
  • Keep selling after sale!
  • Drive call to action - tell 'em what they should do!
  • Say enough (not too much or too little) to make sale.
 
books
The Elements of Style. William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. (2nd edition), 1972.

On Writing Well. William Zinsser. Harper Perennial (6th edition), 1998.

Web Copy That Sells. Maria Veloso. American Management Association, 2009.

Inbound Marketing - Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. Wiley, 2010.

The Copywriter's Handbook. Robert William Bly. Henry Holt & Company, 1985.

Letting Go of the Words. Janice (Ginny) Redish. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007.

Hot Text: Web Writing That Works. Jonathan and Lisa Price. New Riders, 2002.

Net words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy. Nick Usborne. McGraw-Hill, 2002.
style guides

These style guides can help prevent religious wars over grammar, punctuation and spelling:

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. Perseus Press.

Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications. Microsoft Press.

The Chicago Manual of Style. The University of Chicago Press.
links

Sites and blogs with smart, credible advice on writing for the Web:

Writing for the Web (J. Nielsen)

Writing Web Content (usability.gov)

How Users Read the Web (J. Nielsen)
© 2011 Clearwater Communications